Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 10% as Hashprice Rises

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty declined 10.09% to 124.93 trillion at block 953,568 on Sunday, the blockchain’s 11th-largest downward adjustment. The fall eased competition for block rewards as hashprice climbed to about $33 per Petahash per second per day.

The adjustment reduced difficulty from about 138.96 trillion after an epoch that lasted 15.6 days, longer than the typical 14-day period. Galaxy Research reported that some mining power came offline during the epoch and that Bitcoin’s price has dropped roughly 15% so far in June, which squeezed miner margins.

Total network hashrate is approximately 886 exahashes per second, down about 12% this month and 23% from its October high, according to Blockchain.com data. Lower competing hashrate made it easier for remaining miners to find blocks and raised short-term revenue per unit of hashpower.

Hashrate Index data show hashprice increased about 13% to roughly $33 per PH/s/day after the difficulty adjustment. An estimate by crypto trader Merlijn Enkelaar places earnings at about 9% higher per machine following the drop. Operators using newer, more energy-efficient rigs are more likely to remain profitable at current hashprice levels, while older machines with higher electricity costs face greater risk of being idled or retired.

The next scheduled difficulty adjustment is around June 27. Predictive models project a modest increase of roughly 1.7% to near 127 trillion if present conditions persist.

Historically, large difficulty declines have followed major shifts in mining activity. The largest drop on record was in July 2021 after a regulatory ban led to a rapid exit of mining equipment. Earlier this year, a more-than-11% decline coincided with storm-related curtailments and a sharp fall in Bitcoin’s price.