Key facts
- Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped 10.09% to 124.93 trillion.
- This is the second-largest negative adjustment of 2026 and the lowest difficulty since July 2025.
- The adjustment was triggered by a 15% price decline in Bitcoin in June, squeezing miner margins.
- The difficulty cut increases Bitcoin production per unit of hashrate by about 11%.
- Spot hashprice recovered to over $30 per petahash per second per day.
- Estimated average Bitcoin production cost is $84,300, with BTC trading below this figure.
Bitcoin mining difficulty experienced its second-largest negative adjustment of 2026, decreasing by 10.09% to 124.93 trillion. This marks the lowest difficulty level of the year and the lowest since July 2025. The adjustment, occurring at block height 953,568, followed a roughly 15% decline in Bitcoin's price during June, which compressed miner profit margins and led to some operators shutting down less efficient machines.
As hashrate decreased, block times slowed, prompting the network's automatic difficulty retargeting mechanism. Galaxy Research, part of Galaxy Digital, identified price-driven margin compression as the primary driver for this and other significant difficulty adjustments in 2026. The 10.09% cut is expected to increase the amount of Bitcoin mined per unit of active hashrate by approximately 11%.
Following the adjustment and a recent bounce in Bitcoin's price, the spot hashprice has recovered to over $30 per petahash per second per day, with Hashrate Index reporting $32.31 on Sunday. The network's seven-day average hashrate was approximately 894 EH/s. This is the third downward adjustment exceeding 5% in 2026, indicating sustained economic pressure on miners, distinct from the winter-storm-related shutdowns that influenced an earlier adjustment.
While block times have normalized to near 10 minutes, the broader economic picture for miners remains challenging. Checkonchain's model estimates the average Bitcoin production cost at around $84,300 as of June 13, significantly above the current spot price of approximately $63,780. The difficulty reduction is anticipated to improve the profitability for miners utilizing newer, more efficient equipment, though those with higher operating costs may continue to face difficulties.