🔻 The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has decreased sharply since 2021
The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has just adjusted down by more than 11% - the deepest drop since the shock of China's ban on mining in 2021.
Before this adjustment period, the block creation time had extended to about 11.4 minutes, longer than the network's target of 10 minutes. This indicates a significant decrease in hashrate in the short term.
The total hashrate of the network has dropped by about 15-20% in recent weeks. The main reasons are:
- BTC price adjustment -> mining profit margins shrink
- High electricity costs in the US and some major mining areas
- Some mines shutting down due to operational conditions and optimizing cash flow after halving
-> When hashrate decreases rapidly, the protocol automatically lowers the difficulty to bring the block speed back to a balanced state. This helps the miners still active to have better profit margins in the short term.
This development reflects the real pressure on the mining industry after halving, while also opening a new restructuring phase in the mining ecosystem.
