How Marathon Digital’s 50 EH/s expansion affects Bitcoin mining

The Difficulty and Pool Shifts

The Bitcoin network difficulty reached 132.76 trillion on September 21, 2026. This follows a 1.31 percent upward retarget on September 5 that moved difficulty to 127.45 trillion. Difficulty fell 10.09 percent in June to 124.93 trillion. The difficulty reached 148.2 trillion earlier this year at block 931,392. The September 5 retarget was the eighth upward move of the year.

Foundry USA controls 24.9 percent of the market with 243.7 EH/s, while AntPool follows with 19.63 percent and 192.1 EH/s. F2Pool maintains a 16.5 percent share with 161.5 EH/s. ViaBTC holds 9.57 percent with 93.7 EH/s, and SpiderPool holds 7.91 percent with 77.4 EH/s. The MARA Pool holds 5.57 percent with 54.5 EH/s. SecPool maintains 4.59 percent with 44.9 EH/s, and Luxor holds 2.83 percent with 27.7 EH/s. Because the network difficulty climbed to 132.76 trillion on September 21, 2026, after the September 5 retarget of 127.45 trillion, miners face increased pressure to maintain block production speeds. The protocol adjusts difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain a ten-minute average block time, which forces miners to deploy more computational power when block production speeds exceed the network target. The August 23 decline of 1.31 percent brought difficulty to 125.81 trillion. The network hashrate fluctuates between 880 and 950 EH/s. The network hashrate settled around 900 to 912 EH/s following recent retargets.

Marathon’s Scaling and Fleet Metrics

Marathon Digital Holdings targets 50 EH/s capacity to scale its mining operations. The company raised its average operational hash rate to 25.7 EH/s in May, a 22 percent improvement over April. The operating fleet includes 246,000 Bitcoin miners capable of 30.6 EH/s, with 237,000 miners providing 29.3 EH/s. This growth follows a 93 percent increase in energized hash rate recorded in May. The company energized 5,000 additional miners in May, adding 0.7 EH/s. The expansion is part of the drive to reach 50 EH/s.

The company manages several sites with specific outputs. In Kearney, Nebraska, the energized hash rate is 2.3 EH/s. In Granbury, Texas, the output is 3.9 EH/s. You should monitor these large-scale deployments to see if they offset the capacity lost to other industries. The company also holds 17,857 unrestricted BTC.

Economic Pressure and Market Competition

Miners face a squeeze between rising difficulty and shifting industry focus. Bitmain reduced prices for several generations of mining hardware. The transition toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing pulls capital and power away from Bitcoin mining. Cango shut down one third of its equipment to expand into AI. This competition makes the current environment a stress zone for many operators.

Hashprice sits between $32 and $33 per PH/s per day. The cost to mine one bitcoin is $84,300, while Bitcoin trades at $65,600. This gap forces some operators to shut off unprofitable hardware. The Puell Multiple fell from 0.83 to 0.74 over ten days. The USD hashprice fell to $27.67 per PH/s/day in June. The Bitcoin network reduced difficulty by 10.09 percent in June, from 138.96 trillion to 124.93 trillion. The industry is clearly in a stress zone. Will the current difficulty levels force more marginal miners to shut down their machines?