Bitcoin news: Mining difficulty drops by most since 2021 as miners capitulate

Bitcoin's mining difficulty experienced an approximate 11% drop, the largest since China's 2021 crackdown, following a sharp decrease in hashrate caused by falling prices and widespread U.S. winter storm outages. This adjustment lowered the metric from over 141.6 trillion to about 125.86 trillion, indicating fewer active machines securing the network. Miners have been hit hard by Bitcoin prices falling from $126,000 to around $69,500, forcing those with high energy costs or outdated equipment to shut down or pivot to AI data center development, as exemplified by Bitfarms. Furthermore, revenue per petahash has halved to about $35. While such drops signal capitulation, they also act as a self-correcting mechanism, potentially increasing profitability for remaining miners by reducing competition, and historically have preceded price stabilization or rebounds.

(Source：CoinDesk)