Bitcoin Set for Biggest Mining Difficulty Drop Since July 2021
Bitcoin is heading for its largest mining difficulty drop in nearly three years, with a projected 9% adjustment expected within five days. This comes in response to a sharp decline in Bitcoin's hashrate — the total computing power securing the network — which has plunged around 30% in just two weeks, falling below 700 exahashes per second (EH/s). This is the steepest hashrate decline since China's 2021 crackdown on crypto mining.
The drop in hashrate is attributed to seasonal factors, such as high temperatures in major mining regions, and the ongoing financial pressure on miners following the recent Bitcoin halving, which cut block rewards in half. As mining becomes temporarily less profitable, smaller and less efficient miners are likely shutting down operations, contributing to the decline.
A difficulty adjustment is a built-in feature of Bitcoin’s protocol that recalibrates the mining difficulty roughly every two weeks based on hashrate changes. A 9% downward adjustment will make it easier to mine new blocks, potentially increasing revenue per EH/s for the miners still active.
This adjustment may offer short-term relief for the industry, but long-term profitability still hinges on Bitcoin’s price performance and further infrastructure improvements.
