Bitcoin’s mining difficulty edged lower in the network’s first difficulty adjustment of 2026, offering a brief reprieve for miners after a year marked by intense competition and shrinking margins.
Key Takeaways:
- Bitcoin mining difficulty dipped slightly in the first adjustment of 2026.
- Faster block times point to a difficulty increase later this month.
- Mining profitability remains under pressure despite the brief relief.
The adjustment, completed Thursday, lowered difficulty to 146.4 trillion, reflecting modest changes in network conditions as the year begins.
Bitcoin Difficulty Set to Rise After Blocks Run Faster Than Target
Mining difficulty measures how hard it is to add a new block to Bitcoin’s blockchain and is recalibrated roughly every two weeks to keep block production close to the 10-minute target.
At the time of the adjustment, average block times were running at about 9.88 minutes, slightly faster than the protocol’s goal.
As a result, the next recalibration is expected to reverse course. Data from CoinWarz estimates the next adjustment on Jan. 22, which would lift difficulty to around 148.2 trillion.
Despite the latest dip, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty remains historically elevated. The metric climbed steadily throughout 2025, reaching record levels before easing late in the year.
Even after the most recent changes, difficulty remains below the all-time high of roughly 155.9 trillion set in November, but competition among miners remains intense.
The elevated difficulty underscores the strain facing the mining sector following a difficult 2025. Miners endured what many described as the harshest margin environment on record, driven by the April 2024 halving that cut block rewards in half and by worsening macroeconomic conditions.
Those pressures intensified during the crypto market downturn that began late last year.
Profitability metrics reflected the squeeze. Miner hash price, which tracks expected revenue per unit of computing power, slipped below breakeven levels in November.
Industry data shows the figure fell under $35 per petahash per second per day, well below the roughly $40 level many operators view as the threshold for sustainable operations.
External factors compounded the challenge. New US tariffs introduced during President Donald Trump’s term raised concerns over mining equipment supply chains, while a sharp market sell-off in October triggered a broader crypto decline.
Bitcoin prices dropped more than 30% in November, briefly falling to just above $80,000.
Study Challenges Bitcoin Mining Energy Criticism
Bitcoin mining can strengthen electrical grids and lower consumer electricity costs rather than strain power systems, according to a detailed analysis by independent researcher Daniel Batten.
His research challenges common claims that mining destabilizes grids or drives up energy prices, drawing on peer-reviewed studies and operational data to argue that the industry’s flexible power usage can provide measurable system benefits.
Meanwhile, Bitmain is cutting prices aggressively across multiple generations of Bitcoin mining hardware as pressure builds across the mining sector, according to recent promotional campaigns and internal price lists circulated to customers.
One promotion dated Dec. 23 offered a package of four S19 XP+ Hydro units paired with an ANTRACK V2 container, implying an effective price of roughly $4 per terahash for the 19 J/TH machines.
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