Bitcoin mining difficulty rises six percent as bitcoin prices decline

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose six percent while the price of the cryptocurrency fell, according to reporting by 24/7 Wall St. and Yahoo Finance. The increase in difficulty puts additional operational pressure on miners as token valuations decline. [1][8]

Separately, institutional treasury activity remained active. Cointelegraph reported that treasury company Strive purchased 4,045 bitcoin for approximately 335 million dollars between October 12 and October 16. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission cited by Cointelegraph, the acquisitions occurred at an average price of 82,803 dollars per coin including expenses, pushing Strive's total holdings to 36,818 bitcoin. [2][3]

Historic funds also moved on the blockchain. CoinDesk reported that a bitcoin wallet that had been dormant since 2013 transferred 411.45 bitcoin to a new address. Data from Arkham Intelligence cited by CoinDesk showed the stash was worth roughly 34 million dollars at a price of about 82,600 dollars per coin, compared with its original purchase value of 54,000 dollars. [4]

The difficulty increase follows strong financial performance in the sector. As FTMQ Crypto reported earlier, bitcoin miners earned roughly 1.12 billion dollars in revenue in October 2026, supported by global computing power reaching approximately 941 exahashes per second. [12]