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, a...