The rising Bitcoin network mining difficulty ensures the network remains sufficiently decentralized but also makes life harder for miners.
The Bitcoin (BTC) network mining difficulty, the relative computing challenge of adding a new block to the ledger, increased slightly to 148.2 trillion in the last adjustment of 2025 and is projected to rise again in January 2026.
The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is projected to occur on January 8, 2026, at block height 931,392 and is expected to raise the network mining difficulty to 149 trillion, according to CoinWarz.
Average block times are about 9.95 minutes at the time of this writing, slightly below the 10-minute target, meaning that difficulty will likely increase to get block times closer to the target.
