Thirteen years ago today, Bitcoin marked its first halving event, reducing the miner block reward from the original 50 BTC to 25 BTC.

Now, with Bitcoin (BTC) having completed four halving events and block rewards currently at just 3.125 BTC, the mining sector continues to experience significant changes, with industrial miners consolidating and exploring AI applications.

Simultaneously, a surge in solo mining is being observed, according to analysts from Bitfinex who shared insights with Cointelegraph.

“Despite the new spike in more industrial Bitcoin mining, we would like to underscore the new wave of solo miners and how hobbyist miners are coming back to the market, thanks to improvements in mining pools, efficiency gains and niche strategies,” the analysts noted.

Bitcoin Mining in 2024 vs. 2025: Increasing Competition Amidst Shrinking Output

Over the past year, the Bitcoin mining market has expanded in terms of scale, complexity, and competitiveness, with the global hashrate exceeding one zetahash per second (ZH/s) in August, as reported by CoinWarz.

“This reflects both increased investment and the deployment of ultra-efficient mining hardware such as the Antminer S21 series,” Bitfinex analysts explained. “In short, the Bitcoin mining market of 2025 is more industrialized, technologically advanced, and geographically dispersed than it was in 2024, but also more competitive and volatile.”

Bitcoin Hashrate Chart Bitcoin hashrate chart from December 2024 to November 2025. Source: CoinWarz

Despite the increased competition, mining output has decreased over the past year. Bitcoin’s circulating supply added approximately 155,000 BTC between November 27, 2024, and November 27, 2025, reflecting a 37% drop from 245,000 BTC in the previous year, as detailed by Blockchain.com.

“2024 was already a tough year for miners,” Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at BTC mining tech provider Braiins, remarked, noting that miners have been deploying hardware at unprecedented rates.

Though BTC prices have risen, mining revenues have continued to decline as the hash price — the miners’ returns earned per unit of hash power — has dropped amid growing mining competition, Csepcsar added.

Bitcoin Hashprice Index Bitcoin hashprice index hit an all-time low at $34 on November 21, 2025. Source: HashrateIndex.com

“2024 was difficult. Today is worse. Miners are in the most competitive environment the industry has ever seen, and nobody knows how long this will last,” Csepcsar cautioned.

The Resurgence of Solo and Hobbyist Mining

Amid the rising industrial competition and increasing operational costs, individual miners have not vanished. Instead, they are making a comeback, benefiting from various enhancements in mining pool technology, as noted by Bitfinex analysts.

“Tools such as CKPool — a solo-mining-friendly platform known for low latency — have helped make this practice more accessible,” the analysts observed. They also noted the social trend of “lottery wins” by solo miners, particularly among those utilizing efficient, low-noise mining devices at home.

Solo Mining Source Source: RedPandaMining

“Hobbyist mining — not strictly solo but also not industrial — has seen a mini renaissance,” Bitfinex analysts stated, attributing this trend to the availability of economical, efficient ASICs, off-peak electricity usage strategies, heat recycling methods, and firmware like BraiinsOS that optimizes mining device efficiency.

“It is unlikely that these groups could take the hashrate lead in a capitulation scenario, as we are talking about normal users with limited hashrate available,” the analysts concluded.

In a potential major capitulation by the largest mining operations, medium-sized industrial entities may emerge as the dominant players, while solo miners and hobbyists would continue to lag far behind in terms of capacity, they cautioned:

“It is an interesting pattern, but it is far from competing with the larger and more industrial operators.”