Bitcoin mining difficulty falls 10.09% in largest 2026 drop

Bitcoin's mining difficulty has undergone one of its largest downward adjustments in history, dropping by 10.09% over the weekend. The change, which took effect at block 953,568, lowered the difficulty from 138.96 trillion to 124.93 trillion, marking the second-largest decline of 2026 and the 11th-largest overall.

The adjustment is a direct response to a significant reduction in the network's computational power, or hashrate, as miners have turned off unprofitable machines. This occurred amid a roughly 15% decline in Bitcoin's price during June, which severely compressed miner margins. The period leading up to the adjustment, known as an epoch, lasted 15.6 days, longer than the typical 14-day target, indicating blocks were produced more slowly as hashrate came offline.

The drop in difficulty provides immediate relief for miners who remain active, as it reduces the computational work required to mine new blocks and earn rewards. The metric known as hashprice, which estimates daily revenue per unit of computing power, has risen approximately 13% to around $33 per petahash per second per day as a result. Analysts note this level can push more efficient mining operations toward a...