The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has dropped by 5%: market analysis and outlook
As a result of the latest recalculation, the mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency decreased by 5% to 127.17 T. This event reflects the current market dynamics: after a period of instability, when the indicator plummeted by 10.09% in mid-June and then recovered by 7.15%, we are now witnessing a new correction. Such fluctuations are not uncommon for Bitcoin, but the scale of the decline points to a shift in the balance between hashrate and asset price.
Comparison with Historical Data
At the beginning of the year, difficulty stood at 148.26 T, which is 17% higher than the current value. The gap from the all-time high of 155.27 T, recorded in October 2025, has reached 22%. This is a significant decrease, signaling a reduction in competition among miners, possibly due to deteriorating market conditions or the migration of some capacity to other sectors, such as artificial intelligence.
Hashrate and Profitability
The average hashrate has recovered to levels above 1 ZH/s, and the block interval has shortened to nine minutes. However, according to Glassnode, the smoothed seven-day moving average hashrate stands at 864.4 EH/s. At its peak in October, the network's computing power reached 1.15 ZH/s, but has since shown a steady downward trend. This confirms that miners are reducing activity, likely due to declining profitability.
Against the backdrop of falling difficulty, the hashprice has risen from ~$30 per PH/s per day to ~$32. The mining profitability metric has rebounded from local lows at the beginning of the month around $27 per PH/s per day, but it still lags significantly behind the $40 level, which is considered an approximate breakeven threshold. This means many miners are operating at or below the breakeven point, pushing them toward diversification.
Expert Opinion: The decline in difficulty and hashrate is a classic market self-regulation mechanism, but current profitability levels raise questions about the network's long-term sustainability. If Bitcoin's price does not recover, we may see a further outflow of miners to the AI sector, which is already actively happening. However, for investors, this could be a signal to accumulate—historically, after such corrections, difficulty often returns to growth.