October was supposed to be “Uptober,” but this year the market had other plans, Bitcoin closed the month lower, breaking a 6 year-long trend. Meanwhile, network competition keeps intensifying as difficulty surged to a new all-time high. On the hardware front, Canaan released its A16 series, and a new contender officially entered the Bitcoin ASIC hardware arena with the BT1. Furthermore, major pools take sides in the escalating 83-byte OP_RETURN debate and Ethiopia rolls out a new Time-of-Use tariff structure that could reshape the country’s mining landscape.
Uptober Got Cancelled
Difficulty Surges to New All-Time High
Canaan Unveils the Avalon A16 Series
BGIN Enters Bitcoin Mining Hardware Game with BT1 ASICs
The 83-Byte Divide Heats Up as Pools Pick Sides
Ethiopia Introduces New Time-of-Use Mining Tariffs
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Uptober Got Cancelled
This year, the traditional “Uptober” rally failed to show up. Bitcoin ended the month in the red, sliding 3.69%. While the decline wasn’t severe, it still marks Bitcoin’s worst October since 2018 and only the third negative October since 2013. Historically, BTC has gained an average of nearly 20% during this month.
Even after setting new all-time highs near $126,300 on October 6th, Bitcoin has continued to struggle. It has now fallen below its 200-day simple moving average and is once again testing the $104K–$105K support range.
Difficulty Surges to New All-Time High
Network hashrate continued its upward trajectory. The 7-day moving average crossed 1,100 EH/s for the first time, reaching a record 1,128 EH/s on October 21st. Since then, growth has paused, with hashrate moving sideways over the past 10 days.
This surge in compute power drove another difficulty adjustment higher. Bitcoin mining difficulty increased +6.31% last week, setting a new all-time high of 155.97T. The network continues its relentless upward trend. Year-to-date, difficulty is now up 42.08%. When we break that down, the average month-over-month growth rate is 3.58%, practically the same difficulty expansion pace we saw throughout 2024.
Canaan Unveils the Avalon A16 Series
Canaan Inc. has officially launched the Avalon A16 series, during Blockchain Life 2025 last week. The company introduced two new air-cooled models: the Avalon A16 (282 TH/s) and the Avalon A16XP (300 TH/s).
Avalon A16
Hashrate: 282 TH/s
Power Draw: 3,892 W
Efficiency: 13.8 J/TH
Delivering over 22% higher efficiency than its predecessor, the A15, the new Avalon A16 narrows the gap with the Antminer S21XP, which operates at 13.5 J/TH. With a hashrate of 282 TH/s, the A16 ranks among the most powerful air-cooled Bitcoin miners on the market. For context, the Antminer S21XP and Auradine Teraflux AT2880 each deliver 270 TH/s, while Bitdeer’s SEALMINER A3 Pro Air reaches 290 TH/s, positioning Canaan’s latest release firmly within the industry’s top performance bracket.
Avalon A16XP
Hashrate: 300 TH/s
Power Draw: 3,840 W
Efficiency: 12.8 J/TH
The flagship Avalon A16XP achieves an impressive 12.8 joules per terahash, placing it firmly among the most efficient air-cooled ASICs in the world. Despite delivering 6% more hashrate than the standard A16, it actually consumes slightly less power. With this level of efficiency, only Bitdeer’s SEALMINER A3 Pro Air performs marginally better at 12.5 J/TH.
This release marks a significant leap in both efficiency and power density, elevating Canaan back into the top tier of global ASIC manufacturers and underscoring its renewed competitiveness.
BGIN Enters Bitcoin Mining Hardware Game with BT1 ASICs
BGIN Blockchain has announced a major milestone in the development of its first Bitcoin mining machine, the BT1 series, set to launch in early 2026. The company has completed design and simulation verification and entered the tape-out phase, a critical step toward chip production.
BGIN’s global R&D team brings years of ASIC design experience previously applied to altcoin miners like the KS7, which doubled performance over earlier models. The BT1 series aims to deliver industry-leading efficiency and marks BGIN’s official expansion into Bitcoin mining under its ICERIVER® brand lineup. CEO Allen Wu called the BT1 “a pivotal moment” for BGIN, positioning the company to bring its proven ASIC expertise to the Bitcoin market.
The 83-Byte Divide Heats Up as Pools Pick Sides
A growing technical divide is emerging between two major Bitcoin node implementations. Bitcoin Core, the reference software run by most of the network, and Bitcoin Knots, a more conservative variant led by Luke Dashjr that enforces stricter policies to protect decentralization. This conflict centers on the long-standing 83-byte limit on OP_RETURN, which caps how much arbitrary data can be included in a transaction.
Bitcoin Core developers want to remove this limit, arguing that the fee market should determine what gets mined. Knots developers oppose the change, warning that larger OP_RETURNs could bloat the blockchain, increase node resource costs, and even expose node operators to legal liability if prohibited content or illegal data is stored on-chain.
For miners, the implications cut both ways: removing the cap could attract more data-driven demand (inscriptions, rollups, timestamping), boosting fee revenue. But it also means heavier blocks, higher bandwidth requirements, and a greater risk of orphaned blocks.
Last week SpiderPool upgraded to v30 policy and their first significantly oversized OP_RETURNs mined was an image of Mario giving his opinion on filters. With SpiderPool joining F2Pool and MARA, roughly 24% of global hashrate now mines OP_RETURN data above traditional limits.
Ethiopia Introduces New Time-of-Use Mining Tariffs
Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has officially announced a revised multi-year electricity tariff structure for data-mining operations, set to take effect December 1, 2025. The changes introduce a Time-of-Use (TOU) model where power costs fluctuate based on demand across the national grid.
Under the new structure, electricity during peak hours (18:00–22:00) will be priced the highest at $0.06/kWh, while off-peak hours (23:00–05:00 and 09:00–18:00) offer the lowest rates starting at $0.035/kWh. The three-tiered pricing system will increase incrementally through July 2028 as part of a national cost-recovery strategy.
EEP has also unveiled an Availability-Based Tariff (ABT) to account for planned grid curtailment linked to water resource management and system constraints. Energy charges will vary based on actual availability delivered versus contracted levels, intended to provide transparency and more predictable economics for miners. For example, in year one with a $0.04/kWh base tariff, moderate availability (60–69%) drops pricing to $0.0324/kWh, while Low availability (<50%) brings rates down to $0.0309/kWh.
The new framework reflects Ethiopia’s shifting approach to high-demand loads. Cryptocurrency mining has grown into a major revenue contributor, EEP reported $220M in power sales to miners in FY 2024/25, representing ~18% of total electricity revenue. But continuous large-scale consumption requires better alignment with grid stability and national planning. Earlier this year, the government also tightened restrictions on new mining power permits due to ongoing system strain.
Broader power-sector reforms are underway as well: consumer and industrial tariffs were revised this year, and EEP says these updates—enabled under existing PPAs—are essential to ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the electricity sector while maintaining Ethiopia’s attractiveness for foreign investment.
EEP reaffirmed its commitment to providing reliable, secure, and clean power to strategic industrial users and emphasized that the revised structure is designed to encourage operational efficiency, off-peak load shifts, and a more balanced relationship between data-mining demand and national grid capacity.
👉 Premium subscribers get the full breakdown of why U.S. electricity prices are rising and the strategic shifts miners must make to stay cost-competitive in this new grid economy. Unlock market-moving insights on infrastructure inflation and the technologies reshaping power pricing before they reshape your margins.
Why U.S. Electricity Prices Are Rising and What It Means for Miners
Implications for Bitcoin Miners
Bitmain’s Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
