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Recent data shows that Bitcoin mining difficulty has dropped sharply within the last day. This development follows significant bearish price motion over the past week, which resulted in a complete 11% decline in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin mining difficulty has seen a historic decline since China's crackdown
Mining difficulty, because the name suggests, measures how difficult it’s for miners to resolve the mathematical problem required so as to add a brand new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, a rise in difficulty indicates that mining is difficult for the common network node and vice versa.
Generally, the Bitcoin network adjusts this metric every 2,016 blocks (roughly two weeks). According to developer Mononaut, Bitcoin saw an 11.6% drop in mining difficulty within the last 24 hours, marking the most important single adjustment since China's ban and the tenth largest negative adjustment ever.
In 2021, the Asian country issued a ban order against all types of Bitcoin mining activity inside its borders, effectively eliminating greater than half of the world's hash rate. At the identical time, mining difficulties also decreased, which lowered the participation threshold for brand new miners.
According to further data shared by mononaut, Bitcoin mining difficulty is now at 125.86T after the recent decline that began at block 935,429.
Source: @mononautical on X
The drop in mining difficulty reflects a troublesome price environment
While a decline in Bitcoin mining indicates an increasing loosening of mining activities, it also indicates a rise in miner capitulation, that’s, miners becoming unprofitable and being shut down. This is often as a result of rising energy costs, a regulatory crackdown like in China, or market crashes like those seen recently. Notably, Bitcoin prices initially posted a 28% loss within the opening week of February, trading as little as $60,000 before rallying back to $70,000. Therefore, it is probably going that this recent correction has put many miners in a heavy losing position.
However, it’s price noting that Bitcoin's difficulty adjustment is a self-sustaining mechanism designed to make sure that latest blocks are continually mined, no matter what number of miners participate. Furthermore, given the recent negative correction, a brand new influx of miners is predicted, which just isn’t a cause for concern.
Data from MARA Holdings’ Q3 2025 release suggests the common Bitcoin mining cost is $67,704. According to Julio Moreno, head of CryptoQuant, most Bitcoin mining firms are prone to suffer heavy losses at current market prices and are expected to extend selling activity, contributing to the recent miner exodus. At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $69,357, following a 1.71% loss over the past day.
BTC is trading at $69,385 on the every day chart | Source: BTCUSDT chart on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Bison, chart from Tradingview
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