Bitcoin mining difficulty fell 0.03% to 132.72 trillion at block 969696 on Oct. 3, after rising 4.16% in September. The adjustment was the smallest of 2026 and brought the year’s total to 19 changes, including eight increases totaling 33.34% and 11 decreases totaling 45.30%, for a net decline of 11.96%. Difficulty automatically adjusts mining requirements to maintain an average block interval of about 10 minutes. Current block times are slower at 10 minutes and 48 seconds, with the next adjustment expected on Oct. 18, 2026. Mining economics have also improved: hashprice, the daily output value of one petahash per second, reached $41.51 over the past 30 days and fell as low as $37.45 per PH/s, but stayed near $40 for most of September. Miners generated $1.12 billion in September, their strongest monthly revenue since January’s $1.15 billion and one of the strongest months since May 2026, when revenue reached $1.08 billion, according to newhedge.io metrics. The combination of lower annual difficulty, stable hashprice and bitcoin’s August and September rally has provided miners with unusual breathing room, although its durability through the rest of the year remains uncertain.