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Bitcoin mining difficulty climbed to an all-time high of 144.4 trillion on February 20, 2026, up 15%, making it the largest percentage increase since the 2021 China ban recovery. The jump is largely driven by a hashrate rebound to 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s) from 826 exahash per second (EH/s). This matters because it shows strong network security and miner resilience despite BTC’s price slump and multi-year low hashprice (~$23.9/PH/s).
🔥 NEWS: Bitcoin mining difficulty just jumped 14.7% to a record 144.4 trillion
The protocol's self-correcting design is no longer a "crypto theory." pic.twitter.com/p4CRWyB3Hv
— Nathan Jeffay (@NathanOnCrypto) February 20, 2026
The adjustment follows a 12% difficulty drop after severe U.S. winter storms forced major operators to slam the breaks on operations, further worsened by price weakness as Bitcoin reached $60,000 lows in February, 2026. Hashprice remains at multi-year lows around $23.9 per PH/s, squeezing profitability.
However, this has not stopped large scale operators who can access low cost energy from ramping up their mining efforts. One of such entities is the United Arab Emirates, with mining operations of over $344 million profit still unrealized. These entities are playing their part in maintaining an elevated and resilient hashrate, despite subdued Bitcoin rates.
Another major factor in the declining Bitcoin mining rate is that several public companies are reallocating capacity toward AI and high-performance computing to the hashrate recovery. A prime example is the recent Bitfarms (BITF) rebrand announcement removing the bitcoin identity from its name, with a renewed focus on AI infrastructure. The company, to be known as Keel Infrastructure pending a shareholder vote, stated its intention to pivot towards building data centers to aid high-performance computing and help steady artificial intelligence workload.
Looks like Bitfarms $BITF is cooking behind the scenes, with several great catalysts to look forward to in 2026 and beyond.
• U.S. redomiciliation and rebrand to Keel Infrastructure (targeting April completion)
• Washington site conversion to HPC/AI workloads (December… https://t.co/B4QLDuQU5B
— Capitán 🫱💎🫲 (@CapitanSteveo) February 19, 2026
This dynamic directly connects to activist investor Starboard Value’s recent push for Riot Platforms to accelerate its pivot into AI and high-performance computing data centers. Starboard argues Riot’s existing power contracts, cooling systems, and land are ideally suited for AI workloads, which offer higher margins and stable demand compared to volatile Bitcoin mining revenue.
As a trend, this convergence of mining resilience and strategic diversification paints a picture of structural evolution in the sector rather than short-term market noise – definitely a trend to watch.
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