Bitcoin’s mining difficulty just hit an all-time high, jumping 3.9% to reach 95.7 trillion. The network’s average hashrate—essentially the combined power of all mining rigs working on Bitcoin—reached nearly 724 EH/s (exahashes per second) over the last week.

Why the bump? Recently, Bitcoin blocks were being mined at a faster-than-usual rate of about nine minutes and 37 seconds per block, while the target is around ten minutes. To keep mining on track, the network adjusted the difficulty, making it tougher for miners to find new blocks.

This new difficulty level pushes miners to use even more computing power. For many smaller or older setups, the cost of mining at this difficulty level outweighs the rewards, especially since the recent halving cut their Bitcoin rewards in half. In short, it’s a fierce landscape right now, and only the most efficient miners are likely to thrive. This rise in difficulty reflects confidence in Bitcoin’s network strength, showing that miners are still committed even with tighter margins.