Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped 10.09% on Sunday, falling from 138.96 trillion to 124.93 trillion at block 953,568, according to Galaxy Research.
This marks the blockchain’s 11th-largest downward adjustment ever and the second biggest drop of 2026.
Price decline squeezes miners
Bitcoin’s price has fallen roughly 15% so far in June, which Galaxy said has “squeezed miner margins.”
The epoch between difficulty adjustments ran 15.6 days, longer than the typical 14, as hashrate came offline.
Total network hashrate currently sits at 886 exahashes per second, down 12% this month and 23% below its October peak.
The difficulty drop is now 20% below its November high.
Remaining miners see a boost
With less competition on the network, remaining miners now earn roughly 9% more per machine, according to crypto trader Merlijn Enkelaar.
Hashprice — which measures expected miner revenue per unit of hashrate — climbed 13% following the adjustment and currently sits at $33 per petahash per second per day.
The $30 threshold is significant because it pushes more mining operations to a gross breakeven point.
Efficient fleets will continue generating profit at lower hashprice levels, while older-generation machines with higher electricity costs are likely to be shut off.
What comes next
Bitcoin’s last major difficulty decline came in February, when storm curtailments and a 25% price crash triggered an 11% drop.
The largest difficulty decline on record occurred in July 2021 following China’s mining ban.
The next adjustment is expected around June 27, with Coinwarz predicting a modest 1.69% increase to approximately 127 trillion.
