Overview
- The network's difficulty fell 10.09% to about 124.93 trillion at block 953,568, a move confirmed Sunday that ranks as the 11th-largest downward adjustment on record.
- The cut followed a roughly 15% June price slide that pushed older and higher‑cost rigs offline and stretched the mining epoch to 15.6 days, which signaled slower block production before the retarget.
- The lower difficulty increases BTC earned per unit of active hashrate by about 9% to 11% and has pushed hashprice back toward the roughly $30 per PH/s level that many analysts view as near gross breakeven.
- Beyond price pressure, a structural shift is removing lasting hashrate as public miners convert power capacity to AI and high‑performance computing hosting and Texas operators curtail load under ERCOT's 4CP rules.
- The near‑term relief helps miners that stayed online, but the mid‑July retarget will reveal whether price gains bring idled rigs back or whether AI redeployments and seasonal shutdowns keep hashrate and difficulty on a lower path.