Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Plummets 19% from November Peak
Bitcoin's mining difficulty has taken a significant hit, dropping by nearly 20% from its November peak. This decline is the largest since China effectively banned Bitcoin mining in 2021. As of July 25, the metric stood at approximately 126.23 trillion, down from around 155.97 trillion.
The reason behind this drop lies in the struggling market conditions. Bitcoin has been trading below $65,000, squeezing margins for miners who are already grappling with the effects of the April 2024 halving that reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Public mining companies such as Hut 8, Core Scientific, and TeraWulf have been selling off significant amounts of Bitcoin just to keep their operations afloat. In fact, they sold over 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 alone. To stay viable, many are repurposing their facilities for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads.
The network's hashrate has also taken a hit, dropping to approximately 868 EH/s by July 29.