Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Falls 19.9%, Industry Under Stress

Bitcoin miners are experiencing one of their longest contractions by July 31, despite listed operators' shares rising on expectations for AI and high-performance computing revenue. The difficulty in mining Bitcoin has fallen 19.9% from its peak, making the decline the third deepest since application-specific integrated circuits replaced graphics processors as the industry's main hardware.

The current difficulty level is about 19% below the record of roughly 156 trillion set in November 2025. Meanwhile, Bitcoin traded near $63,100 on July 31, down about 47% over 12 months and almost 50% below its October 2025 record. This price decline has reduced dollar revenue for miners while the protocol continues issuing only 3.125 BTC per block.

Network data confirm the broader contraction: Bitcoin's seven-day average hashrate stood near 868 exahashes per second on July 29, down from more than one zettahash per second at its late-2025 peak. Hashrate Index placed the broader 30-day measure near 940 EH/s in its third-quarter review, about 12% below the December record of 1,066 EH/s.