Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sees Double-Digit Adjustments in 2026

Bitcoin mining difficulty experienced significant fluctuations in 2026 due to external factors and changes in network activity. The Bitcoin network automatically adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain an average block time of around 10 minutes.

In February 2026, severe weather conditions caused by Winter Storm Fern led major mining companies in key regions such as Texas, USA, to shut down their equipment. This resulted in a significant drop in the Bitcoin hash rate from nearly 1.13 ZH/s to around 663 EH/s.

The subsequent reduction in mining difficulty on February 7 was 11.16%, but miners gradually returned online, pushing the hash rate back up to nearly 1 ZH/s. On February 19, the network difficulty rose by 14.7% to 144.4 trillion, marking the largest percentage increase since 2021.

In June, Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased again by about 9.91%, likely due to a decrease in demand and changes in mining operations. At that time, the Bitcoin price had fallen by approximately 15%, and some publicly listed mining companies shifted their capacity towards AI and high-performance computing workloads.