The first difficulty cycle of 2026 has arrived with an adjustment, and Bitcoin mining difficulty has dropped to 146.4 trillion. This provides some relief for miners who have been under long-term pressure. However, this wave of relief may be short-lived—currently, the average block time has returned to 9.88 minutes. Based on this pace, the next difficulty adjustment is likely to rise again to 148.2 trillion.

What’s more disheartening is that even though difficulty is easing, miners’ days are still tough. Mining rewards after the halving remain suppressed at high levels, and the hash price has fallen below the key support of $35/PH/s/day, which means the mining return per unit of hash power continues to decline. For those mining farms with higher marginal costs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify continuing mining economically.