Bitcoin mining difficulty drops 10% in 11th-largest adjustment
In brief
- Mining difficulty dropped 10.09% on Sunday to 124.93 trillion at block 953,568
- Second-largest difficulty decline of 2026, following an 11% drop in February
- Hashrate fell 12% this month and 23% from October peak; remaining miners earn 9% more per machine
Pressure from price and hashrate decline
The price of Bitcoin has fallen by around 15% so far in June, squeezing miner margins across the network. Mining operations depend on hashrate—the raw computing power securing the blockchain. Total hash rate is currently 886 exahashes per second and has fallen 12% so far this month. It's down 23% from its peak in October.
The epoch between mining difficulty adjustments ran for 15.6 days, above the typical 14 days, as hashrate came offline. This longer interval reflects the gradual exit of unprofitable miners from the network.
How difficulty adjustments work
Mining difficulty keeps block production stable even as the amount of mining power on the network changes. When hashrate drops, the network automatically lowers the computational puzzle difficulty so new blocks continue arriving roughly every 10 minutes.
The remaining miners now earn around 9% more per machine following the difficulty drop. Hashprice, which quantifies how much a miner can expect to earn from a specific quantity of hashrate, has increased 13% and is currently $33 per Petahash per second per day.
Context and what's next
This year's second-largest drop follows Bitcoin mining difficulty fell more than 11% in February due to storm curtailments and a 25% BTC price crash. Historically, the highest ever difficulty drop was in July 2021, after China's ban on mining and a following exodus.
The next difficulty adjustment is expected on June 27, with Coinwarz predicting a slight 1.69% increase to around 127 trillion. If hashrate stabilizes or returns, miners will face tighter margins again.
