Bitcoin's mining difficulty has seen a significant decrease of nearly 8% as hash rates struggle, prompting shifts in the mining sector.
On March 21, Bitcoin's mining difficulty saw a significant drop of 7.76%, adjusting to 133.79 trillion hashes. This recalibration is notable as it is the second largest decline this year, following an over 11% decrease earlier in February, primarily driven by reduced hash rates from equipment shutdowns linked to a winter storm in the U.S.
Currently, the average time to mine a Bitcoin block has exceeded 11 minutes, and the total computing power across the network has been on a downward trend since reaching its peak in October 2025. Hash rates have fallen from a record 1.15 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) to 940 exahashes per second (EH/s).
This latest decrease in mining difficulty has resulted in an increase in hash price, now exceeding $33 per petahash per second (PH/s) daily. Experts estimate that miners need an average earnings threshold of around $40 per PH/s daily for profitability. Presently, Bitcoin’s market price is estimated at $70,800, as reported by CoinGecko.
Among the 14 largest public mining firms in the U.S., only IREN and the Trump family-affiliated American Bitcoin Corp have managed to remain profitable, according to TheEnergyMag, based on their fourth-quarter financial reports from 2025. In response to the challenges in the mining landscape, many companies are diversifying into more lucrative artificial intelligence services to bolster profitability.
BitFuFu's Cloud Mining Focus
BitFuFu reported a substantial drop in net income for 2025, posting a $57.4 million loss compared to a profit of $54 million the previous year. Despite this, the company achieved record revenue of $475.8 million, with cloud mining services alone generating $350.6 million, accounting for 73.7% of total earnings and marking a 29.9% increase year-over-year.
The firm also reported $63.1 million from self-mining and $53.7 million from mining equipment sales, reflecting an impressive growth rate of over 76%. Their customer base grew to 675,765 users, with an operational hash rate of 26.1 EH/s and an installed capacity of 478 MW. By the end of 2025, BitFuFu had accumulated 1,778 BTC in its reserves.
“We remain focused on advancing our vertical integration strategy by scaling cloud mining, expanding capacity while maintaining disciplined profitability, optimizing capital allocation, and further increasing our treasury,” stated BitFuFu in a press release.
Experts from Wintermute have pointed out that the conventional Bitcoin mining model may be becoming obsolete due to ongoing profitability challenges.
