With miners back online, block intervals have quickened beyond the customary 10-minute target. Over the past 24 hours, the average time between blocks clocked in at about 8 minutes and 43 seconds. That acceleration is poised to shape the next difficulty epoch, projected for Feb. 19 — roughly four days away. Early estimates already point to a sizable upward adjustment, potentially enough to fully offset the prior 11.16% decline.
Current projections indicate a possible 14.71% increase if the present pace holds. Should block times moderate — with roughly 34% of the 2,016-block epoch still to be mined — that estimate would ease. Even so, regardless of the exact figure posted on Feb. 19, the coming adjustment appears primed to deliver a pronounced increase, one that could more than neutralize the last reduction.
FAQ Why did Bitcoin mining difficulty drop by 11.16% on Feb. 7? The decline followed a sharp hashrate reduction caused by a U.S. Arctic winter storm that forced miners to temporarily curtail operations. How low did Bitcoin’s hashrate fall during the storm?Hashrate dipped to roughly 800 EH/s, slipping below the 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s) threshold. When is the next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment expected? The next difficulty epoch is projected to occur around Feb. 19, 2026. Why could the upcoming difficulty increase be significant? Faster block times and a hashrate rebound above 1 ZH/s are pointing to a potential double-digit upward adjustment.
