I noticed an interesting trend in the mining market. Bitcoin mining difficulty has once again risen and is growing for the second consecutive time. Amid major players shifting to AI computations, miners are not giving up their positions. Yes, there were problems — the cold snap this winter seriously impacted the industry. The global hash rate in January dropped by about 20%, from over 1000 Eh/s to 800 Eh/s. That was a pretty painful moment.

In early February, difficulty fell to 125.86 trillion — the biggest drop since China's mining ban in 2021. But apparently, miners proved to be a resilient breed. Now, the hash rate has recovered and continues to grow. The latest recalculation showed an increase of 0.45% to 145.04 trillion. This means that to mine one block (3.125 BTC, approximately $214 thousand at the current price of $68,600), a huge number of hash functions need to be processed.

Interestingly, despite the ban in China and some large companies like Core Scientific shifting focus, leaders like Bitdeer and MARA continue to bet on crypto mining. It seems they see prospects beyond the AI trend.

One of the issues currently concerning analysts is the situation with Iranian mining. Amid regional military actions, there are fears of disruptions. Estimates suggest Iran accounts for about 2-5% of the global hash rate. That’s a decent share, considering the country’s crypto ecosystem is valued at $7.8 billion and is used as a tool to bypass sanctions. If Iran’s energy infrastructure is seriously affected, it could temporarily reduce their contribution to the global network.

However, experts say that the Bitcoin network can compensate for the loss of some hash rate through difficulty adjustments and redistribution of power across other regions. The average hash rate over the past week has held at around 1020 EH/s, and in the last 24 hours, it has already risen to 1180 Eh/s. It seems mining is showing resilience despite all these challenges.