Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 10% to Lowest Level of 2026

Bitcoin mining difficulty fell more than 10% to its lowest level this year.

The Block reported on June 14 that Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped 10.09% over the weekend at block height 953,568, falling to 124.93 trillion from 138.96 trillion.

Galaxy Research said the adjustment was the 11th-largest decline in Bitcoin's history and the second-biggest difficulty drop this year after February. The current level is the lowest since July 2025.

Mining difficulty refers to the amount of computational work miners must perform to create a new block. The network adjusts difficulty roughly every two weeks to keep average block creation time at about 10 minutes.

The decline came as miner profitability deteriorated after Bitcoin fell about 15% in June. Some mining companies switched off inefficient equipment as returns weakened, reducing the network hash rate and leading to the difficulty adjustment.

The lower difficulty could benefit miners that remain online. Galaxy Research said the adjustment increased Bitcoin output per unit of hashrate by about 11%, helping Hashprice recover to $32.31 per PH/s per day.

Even so, profitability across the industry remains under pressure. Checkonchain estimates Bitcoin's average mining cost at about $84,300. Bitcoin, meanwhile, was trading in the $63,000 range, leaving many miners in loss-making territory on an economic basis.