Key Takeaways
- At block height 965664, Bitcoin difficulty ticked up 1.31% to 127.45T, marking its 8th bump of 2026.
- Bitcoin hashprice popped 22.24% from $32.42 to $39.63, while hashrate chilled at 934 EH/s.
- Bitcoin miners only got 0.43% from fees during the last 24 hours. In 2026, miners are very dependent on BTC’s price rather than transfer fees.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Climbs 1.31%
At present, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is 1.31% harder than it was before block 965664 and the two weeks that preceded that block. Difficulty today stands at 127.45 trillion, and the network has clocked a total of 18 distinct difficulty changes since January 2026.
Essentially, Bitcoin’s difficulty system keeps block times steady, roughly around ten minutes per block, and rising and decreasing hashrate changes the setting. If blocks are mined too fast, due to increased hashrate, difficulty rises, and if the blocks are coming in too slow from less mining participation, then the difficulty will drop.
The protocol’s difficulty changes every 2,016 mined blocks, and the most recent epoch was mined a bit faster, which basically led to the increase of 1.31% on Saturday. This year, the difficulty has slid from 146.47 trillion to the current value of 127.45 trillion, highlighting a 13% dip.
Eight Increases and Ten Drops Shape 2026
So over the last eight months of 2026, the sum of eight increases amounted to a rise of 33.34%, but the sum of the network’s ten decreases this year, which is -45.27%, led to a -11.93% decline across the timeframe. The year started rough with a volatile difficulty and then a choppy but mildly negative spring. This was followed by a sharper slide in mid-June and then relatively calm again, with small moves since July.
Hashprice Jumps 22%, Hashrate Stays Below 1 ZH/s, and Miner Profits Remain Tied to Bitcoin’s Price
Meanwhile, as bitcoin’s price has risen a great deal higher over the last month, the network’s hashprice, or estimated value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of hashrate produced per day, has skyrocketed. Around 30 days ago, the hashprice according to hashrateindex.com stood at $32.42, and as of this weekend, it is coasting along at $39.63 per PH/s per day. But despite this 22.24% rise, the hashrate has remained below the 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s) or 1,000 exahash per second (EH/s) range at 934 EH/s.
Hashprice metrics show that miner profits are very much connected to BTC’s price this year, and participants are still seeing an extremely low amount of fees. Fees in blocks over the last day represented 0.43% of total rewards received by miners. The flat hashrate indicates that miners are evolving very carefully, and they might be facing hardware limits. If bitcoin’s price moves sharply in either direction, signs like these may be more evident going forward.
Hero/feature image via coinwarz.com.
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