Miners Face Growing Challenges Amid Rising Network Difficulty
Bitcoin miners reported a decline in monthly production in January as network difficulty continued to rise, making it harder to confirm transactions and mine new blocks. While major miners such as Hut 8, Marathon Digital (Mara), and Bitfarms experienced a drop in output, Riot Platforms defied the trend with an increase in production.
Surge in Mining Difficulty Impacts Output
Throughout January, Bitcoin’s network difficulty hovered near its all-time high of 110 trillion (T). This figure represents a 27.8% increase since the most recent Bitcoin halving event on 20 April 2024. The rising difficulty has forced miners to upgrade their equipment and optimise operations to stay profitable.

Compared to December 2024, Hut 8’s Bitcoin production fell by 27%, with the company mining just 65 BTC in January. Similarly, Mara and Bitfarms recorded declines of 12.5% and 4.7%, respectively. The decrease in production has been attributed to the increasing computational power required to mine new blocks.
Riot Platforms Expands Amid Industry Challenges
While many miners struggled, Riot Platforms managed to increase its Bitcoin production by 2.1% in January. The company launched a new mining facility in Texas as part of a large-scale 1-gigawatt Bitcoin mining development.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms, stated that the Corsicana Facility reached a deployed hash rate of 15.7 exahashes per second (EH/s) towards the end of the month. He attributed the company’s continued success to the deployment of new miners and immersion cooling systems, which have significantly improved Riot’s operational efficiency.
Future Prospects for Bitcoin Miners
Despite the current challenges, miners are optimistic about future improvements. Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, announced that infrastructure upgrades were nearing completion and would enhance mining capacity in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, analysts predict a potential decline in the Bitcoin mining hashrate due to a reduction in mining difficulty and a decrease in preorders for mining hardware. By the end of January, mining difficulty had slightly decreased to 108T, while the hashrate remained at approximately 832 EH/s.
As the Bitcoin mining landscape evolves, companies continue to adapt by upgrading their facilities and enhancing efficiency to stay competitive in an increasingly demanding environment.