Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Dips Slightly, But Miners Push Ahead

Bitcoin mining difficulty has seen a slight decline following a record high, offering a small relief to miners grappling with rising costs and reduced block rewards. On June 15, data from CryptoQuant showed that the mining difficulty now stands at around 126.4 trillion, just below the all-time high of 126.9 trillion recorded on May 31. 

While marginal, this decrease reflects a minor recalibration in a network that remains fiercely competitive. Mining difficulty adjusts every two weeks to ensure that new blocks are mined roughly every 10 minutes, regardless of how much computing power is in the network. 

A higher difficulty, coupled with a record-level hashrate, means it is more challenging and expensive for miners to earn rewards. 

Compounding the pressure is the April 2024 halving event, which cut block rewards in half, reducing miners’ earnings per block and making profitability harder to achieve.

Public Miners Expand Despite Market Headwinds

Even amid tightened margins, some major publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms are not only staying afloat—they’re thriving. Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), one of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin miners, reported a 35% increase in BTC production in May 2025. The firm mined 950 BTC during the month and made a strategic decision to hold rather than sell its coins, raising its total reserves to 49,179 BTC.

“Record production month for MARA — and we sold zero Bitcoin,” MARA’s Chief Financial Officer Salman Khan wrote on X on June 3. The move underscores a growing trend among miners to treat Bitcoin as a long-term treasury asset rather than a commodity to be sold immediately to fund operations.

CleanSpark, another prominent public miner known for its commitment to clean energy, also reported production gains. The company mined 694 BTC in May, a 9% increase from April, and expanded its month-end hashrate to 45.6 exahashes per second (EH/s), up 7.5% month-over-month. Its total BTC reserves now stand at 12,502.

Bitcoin Becomes Strategic Hedge for Miners

The shift toward holding mined Bitcoin marks a notable evolution in mining strategy. Traditionally, miners would liquidate coins to manage operating expenses. Now, more firms are choosing to accumulate, betting on future price appreciation and greater financial resilience. 

As mining grows more capital-intensive and competitive, these strategic decisions could define which players lead the next phase of the Bitcoin mining era.