The latest 2,016-block reset at block 959616 extended a 13.82% decline in 2026 difficulty, following earlier swings tied to hash rate disruptions, weather-related outages, and weaker miner economics.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty was reduced by about 0.74% at block height 959616 in the network’s 15th difficulty adjustment of 2026, extending a year-to-date decline of 13.82% from 146.47 trillion to 126.23 trillion. Difficulty adjustments occur every 2,016 blocks to keep average block times near 10 minutes as network hash rate changes. Earlier reported moves included an 11.16% drop on Feb. 7 after Winter Storm Fern cut hash rate from nearly 1.13 ZH/s to about 663 EH/s, followed by a 14.7% rebound to 144.4 trillion on Feb. 19 as miners returned. The network later saw a roughly 9.91% decline on June 13, and late-July data had pointed to another roughly 1.2% easing. Miner conditions have also weakened in 2026, with Bitcoin’s price down 26% and estimated daily hashprice per PH/s falling from $37.39 to $32.21, according to News Bitcoin.