Bitcoin mining difficulty drops 10% in 11th largest downward adjustment

Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 10.03% on June 23, 2024, marking the eleventh largest downward adjustment in the network's history. This adjustment follows a significant 11.04% drop in February, which was the second-largest decrease recorded at that time. The difficulty adjustment is a mechanism designed to ensure that new Bitcoin blocks are mined approximately every 10 minutes, regardless of the total hashing power dedicated to the network. A decrease in difficulty indicates that the network's computational power, or hash rate, has declined. This recent drop suggests a reduction in the number of miners actively participating or the efficiency of their operations. The average block time over the past two weeks leading up to the adjustment was 11 minutes and 50 seconds, exceeding the target 10-minute interval. This deviation triggered the substantial downward adjustment. The previous adjustment on June 9 saw a 5.36% decrease, indicating a trend of declining mining difficulty in recent months. The current hash rate stands at approximately 570 exahashes per second (EH/s).