Bitcoin mining difficulty drops 19% from peak, largest decline since 2021 China ban

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has fallen roughly 19% from its November 2025 peak, a decline so steep it hasn’t been matched since China effectively kicked every miner out of the country in 2021. The metric, which automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks to keep Bitcoin’s block production steady, dropped from approximately 155.97 trillion to 126.23 trillion as of the July 25, 2026 adjustment.

That makes this only the second time in Bitcoin’s history that mining difficulty has dipped below where it stood a full year earlier. The first was the China exodus.

What’s driving the drop

Bitcoin has been trading consistently below $65,000, squeezing margins for operators who were already grappling with the April 2024 halving that slashed block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Two recent adjustments tell the story clearly. On July 11, difficulty dropped 5%. On July 25, it fell another 0.74%. These followed a string of negative adjustments through June and July that collectively represent the third-steepest decline in the ASIC mining era.

Network hashrate has slid to approximately 868 EH/s by July 29.

Miners are selling and pivoting

Public mining companies, including Hut 8, Core Scientific, and TeraWulf, sold over 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 alone just to keep the lights on. These are infrastructure-heavy businesses making calculated decisions that their operating costs exceed their revenue at current Bitcoin prices.

Many are repurposing their facilities, specifically their power contracts and cooling infrastructure, for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads. Core Scientific has been among the most aggressive in this shift, having already begun converting significant capacity toward AI hosting.

Historical context matters

The 2021 China ban wiped out roughly half of Bitcoin’s hashrate almost overnight. Within about six months, hashrate had fully recovered as miners set up operations in the US, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere.

This time, the decline isn’t driven by a single regulatory shock but by sustained economic pressure. Sub-$65,000 Bitcoin combined with post-halving economics has created a slow squeeze rather than a sudden crackdown.

What this means for the network and investors

For Bitcoin as a protocol, declining difficulty is the system working as designed. The adjustment mechanism ensures that when miners leave, blocks keep getting produced roughly every ten minutes.

The 32,000 BTC sold by public miners in Q1 2026 represents a supply overhang the market has already had to absorb. Below $65,000, the pressure continues. A sustained move above that level could stabilize the remaining mining operations and slow the exodus.

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