Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 5.54% on October 29, 2026, to 148.36 trillion at block height 973,728, following a 5.92% increase on October 16. The two adjustments lifted difficulty approximately 11.79% from October 3, when it stood at 132.72T. The latest increase came as the network's 14-day average hashrate recovered after falling 23% from its October 2025 peak through February 2026. Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts said hashrate climbed about 21% over the following 102 days, adding approximately 185 EH/s and returning to within 6% of its all-time high. Look Into Bitcoin data put computing power at a seven-month high. The recovery has increased competition and strengthened the cost of attacking the Bitcoin network, but it has also reduced miners' expected earnings, with mining profitability at its lowest level since August and hashprice falling to approximately $33 per PH/s per day from a September average of $40. The latest difficulty increase cuts expected earnings per unchanged computing capacity by about 5.24%, while the two October adjustments reduce them approximately 10.5%, assuming other conditions remain constant. A 25 J/TH machine would lose money at a $0.06 per kilowatt-hour electricity rate before other costs, while a 20 J/TH machine would retain a modest surplus. BTC was trading near $78,000 on October 30, and the next adjustment was projected for around November 16, 2026.