Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 10.09% in Second-Largest Decline of 2026

TLDR:

• Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped 10.09% at block 953,568, ranking as the 11th-largest decline in network history. 
• A 15% June price slide pushed hashprice below $30 per petahash, forcing older miners offline across the network.
• Public miners are unplugging rigs and redirecting power capacity toward AI and high-performance computing workloads.
• Texas miners curtailed operations due to the 4CP season, though rising hashrate suggests shutdowns were temporary

Bitcoin mining difficulty recorded its second-largest decline of 2026, dropping 10.09% at block 953,568. The adjustment pulled difficulty from 138.9 trillion to 124.9 trillion.

According to Galaxy Research, the move ranks as the 11th-biggest downward adjustment in network history. A sharp June price slide squeezed miner margins and forced hashrate offline, triggering the recalibration. The drop follows two earlier significant adjustments of 11.16% and 7.76% in February and March.

Price Pressure Forces Miners Offline

Bitcoin’s price fell roughly 15% in early June, pushing the asset below $60,000 before recovering above $64,000. The recovery came on hopes surrounding a potential US-Iran deal. The selloff, however, left a mark on mining economics before prices stabilized.

Galaxy Research explained the mechanics behind the adjustment: “A ~15% June price slide squeezed miner margins.

The epoch ran 15.6 days vs the 14-day target as hashrate came offline.” The extended epoch reflected how quickly operators powered down machines in response to tightening margins.

Hashprice, a key measure of daily mining revenue per petahash per second, dropped below $30 during the downturn.

TheEnergyMag noted that this threshold “pushes more sites closer to, or below, gross breakeven before corporate overhead, debt service, and expansion spending.” That figure does not yet account for capital spending or debt obligations.

Older-generation machines and high-cost operators faced the most pressure during this period. TheEnergyMag added that “older-generation machines and operators with higher electricity costs are more likely to be switched off when revenue falls,” while efficient fleets maintained positive margins.

Less competitive hardware became uneconomical and was powered down, contributing directly to the hashrate decline.

AI Redeployment and Texas Curtailment Add Pressure

Beyond price, a structural shift accelerated the hashrate decline. Several public mining companies have been redirecting power capacity toward AI and high-performance computing workloads.

TheEnergyMag reported that miners are “unplugging mining rigs or slowing mining growth as they retrofit sites for contracted AI/HPC use.” That shift removes Bitcoin hashrate even when the underlying power infrastructure remains active.

Texas-based miners added another layer of seasonal pressure. June marked the start of the four-coincident-peak, or 4CP, season under ERCOT rules.

Large power users in Texas face financial incentives to curtail load during peak summer intervals that set the following year’s transmission costs.

Bitcoin miners in Texas, one of the largest mining markets in North America, had strong reasons to reduce operations during potential peak windows.

TheEnergyMag noted that “the recent rebound in network hashrate suggests some of the early June reduction may have been a temporary curtailment rather than a permanent shutdown.”

The lower difficulty now benefits miners who remained online throughout the adjustment. For the current two-week epoch, each block requires less computational work to solve. Active operators will earn more bitcoin per unit of hashrate deployed as a result.

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