Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Falls 10% in 11th-Largest
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- Bitcoin mining difficulty fell approximately 10% in what the source identifies as the 11th-largest downward adjustment on record, with the drop occurring on Sunday per Galaxy Research data.
- Total network hash rate stands at 886 exahashes per second, down 12% so far this month and 23% from its October peak according to Blockchain.com.
- Remaining miners now earn roughly 9% more per machine following the difficulty dip, per crypto trader Merlijn Enkelaar cited in the article.
- Hashprice — miner revenue per unit of hashrate — climbed 13% to $33 per petahash per second per day as the difficulty cut restored profitability for efficient fleets, per Hashrate Index.
- The $33 hashprice threshold is critical because it pushes more miners back to gross breakeven, though older-generation machines with higher electricity costs are likely being powered down, The Energy Mag reported.
- Historical context: The article notes a prior 11%+ drop in February tied to storm curtailments and a 25% BTC price crash, and the all-time record decline in July 2021 following China's mining ban and miner exodus.
- Next adjustment: Coinwarz projects a slight 1.69% difficulty increase to roughly 127 trillion at the next retarget expected on June 27.
Why it matters: With hash rate down 23% from October's peak, marginal miners are clearly exiting — likely older ASICs with uncompetitive electricity costs — but the resulting 10% difficulty cut and 13% hashprice bounce to $33 has restored gross breakeven economics for efficient fleets, meaning the network is self-correcting profitability for survivors while the next retarget on June 27 is projected nearly flat at +1.69%.
