The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has dropped by 5% — the hash rate is showing a worrying trend.
During another scheduled recalculation, the mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency decreased by 5%, reaching 127.17 T. This decline continues a volatile period for the mining industry: recall that in mid-June, the indicator had already dropped by 10.09%, followed by a rebound of 7.15%.
Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin's difficulty has lost about 17%: while it stood at 148.26 T in January, we now see a significant shortfall. The gap from the all-time high of 155.27 T, recorded in October 2025, has already reached 22%. This indicates serious pressure on the sector.
The average hashrate at the time of writing has recovered to above 1 ZH/s, and the inter-block interval has decreased to nine minutes. However, according to Glassnode, the smoothed seven-day moving average hashrate is 864.4 EH/s. At the peak in October, the network's computing power reached 1.15 ZH/s, and since then we have observed a sustained downward trend.
Interesting dynamics are also seen in profitability metrics. Against the backdrop of falling difficulty, the hashprice has risen from ~$30 to ~$32 per PH/s per day. However, this is only a local rebound from the month's lows around $27 per PH/s per day. For miners to operate profitably, approximately $40 per PH/s per day is needed — current levels are still far from this threshold.
My analysis: A 5% decrease in difficulty is not a catastrophe, but it is a signal that cannot be ignored. The decline in hashrate from October peaks indicates that some miners are leaving the market, likely due to low profitability. The accelerated shift of miners into the AI sector is a logical response to the pressure, but it changes the network's structure and could affect its long-term stability. In the coming weeks, we should expect either stabilization or another round of correction if Bitcoin's price does not show confident growth.