Bitcoin mining difficulty set a new record above 126 T in June

What’s new? Analysts at TheMinerMag have released a new report on the state of the bitcoin mining industry, where they pointed out that the difficulty of bitcoin mining reached a record 126,98 T in June. According to them, the increase in the figure was since the average hashrate over the last 14 days was at 913,54 EH/s, which is just 10% less than the significant milestone of 1 zetahash, which was first crossed in April this year.

TheMinerMag report

What else is known? The surge underscores increased competition among miners, even as market conditions remain volatile and rewards for mining blocks are decreasing, experts write.

After adjusting for complexity, the hash price fell to $52 per PH/s, wiping out most of the gains since early May. However, the figure later rose slightly to $55 per PH/s as bitcoin regained the $110 000 level.

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Despite the network’s soaring hashrate, transaction fees remained low: in May, they amounted to just 1,3% of total block awards. The decline continued in June, and so far the share of fees is less than 1%.

Analysts attributed the hashrate growth to the activation of new capacities by public mining companies. Leading players, such as American Marathon (MARA), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Riot (RIOT), as well as Australian IREN (IREN), reported an increase in the realized hashrate.

For example, the largest publicly traded mining company Marathon with a capitalization of $5,39 billion reported a 30% jump and a record number of blocks solved within its own pool.

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Canada’s HIVE also increased its realized hashrate by nearly 32% in the month after switching on its data center in Paraguay and crossed the 10 EH/s mark. The company is targeting 11,5 EH/s by the end of June and 18 EH/s by the close of Q3. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Bitdeer (BTDR) and China’s Canaan (CAN) continued to increase hashrate with their own ASIC miners.

US-based Cipher Mining (CIFR) accelerated the development of its Black Pearl site in Texas: the company bought additional miners to fully utilize the site’s capacity. It expects to increase hashrate by 70% to 23 EH/s over the next two months.

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Q1 reports from major players emphasize the rising cost of production, driven by higher network hashrate and sometimes higher energy prices.

The average direct cost of bitcoin production excluding corporate costs rose from $52 000 in Q4 2024 to $64 000 in Q1 2025. Since the average hash rate in Q2 is about 10% higher than in Q1, direct production costs are expected to exceed $70 000 in the current quarter, the analysts write.