Bitcoin mining difficulty slips to 146.4 trillion in first 2026 adjustment

The Bitcoin network's mining difficulty fell slightly to 146.4 trillion on Thursday in the first difficulty adjustment of 2026. CoinWarz estimates the next difficulty adjustment will occur on Jan. 22, 2026 at 04:08:12 AM UTC and will increase the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 146.47 T to 148.20 T, according to CoinWarz.

Average block times are about 9.88 minutes at the time of reporting, slightly below the 10-minute target, which is why the next adjustment is expected to be upward to better align with the target block time. Mining difficulty reached new all-time highs in 2025, peaking at 155.9 trillion in November, and the final adjustment of that year slightly increased difficulty while remaining below that peak.

The article says rising difficulty raises competition to mine blocks and added pressure to an industry that faced macroeconomic, regulatory and financial headwinds in 2025. The piece describes 2025 as the "harshest margin environment" on record for miners, noting the April 2024 halving cut the block subsidy by 50% and a crypto market downturn from November put additional strain on operations.

Miner hash price fell below breakeven in November 2025, dropping under $35 per petahash-second per day against a cited breakeven level of $40; tariffs enacted by US President Donald Trump and a flash crash in October that discounted BTC prices by over 30% in November to just north of $80,000 also weighed on miners.

Key Topics

Crypto, Bitcoin, Mining Difficulty, Miner Hash Price, Coinwarz, Donald Trump