Catenaa, Tuesday, March 24, 2026 – Bitcoin’s mining difficulty fell 7.76% to 133.79 trillion in the latest biweekly adjustment Saturday, marking the second‑largest drop of 2026 as miners exit toward artificial intelligence and other compute workloads amid economic pressure on the network.
The adjustment followed average block times stretching to about 12 minutes 36 seconds, exceeding Bitcoin’s 10‑minute target and triggering the protocol’s automatic downward recalibration. The decline follows a turbulent period that saw an 11% drop in early February caused by Winter Storm Fern disruptions and price weakness, and a brief 14.7% rebound in late February when hashpower recovered above 1,000 EH/s. The current difficulty level sits roughly 10% below where the year began and well under the November 2025 all‑time high near 155 trillion.
Context
Bitcoin was trading near $70,370 on Saturday, according to The Block’s price tracking. That price remains below estimates of miner production cost, widely cited above $77,000 after JPMorgan analysts lowered their estimate from about $90,000 as high‑cost miners exited the network. Hashprice, a key metric that measures expected miner revenue per unit of computing power, is near $33.30 per petahash per second per day, at or below breakeven for much mining hardware, according to Luxor’s index.
The recent difficulty drop reflects more than short‑term price movements. A growing number of publicly traded mining firms are pivoting infrastructure toward artificial intelligence and high‑performance computing workloads, which offer higher potential returns than Bitcoin mining amid tighter economics.
Core Scientific has said it plans to sell most of its Bitcoin holdings this year to fund an AI and HPC expansion. Bitdeer has fully liquidated its Bitcoin reserves, becoming the largest publicly traded miner by self‑mining hashrate with zero BTC on its balance sheet. Other miners including Cango, Riot Platforms, TeraWulf, IREN, CleanSpark and Bitfarms have outlined similar diversification plans.
HIVE Digital Technologies recently launched its first AI GPU cluster in Paraguay. Analysts say excess energy capacity and data center infrastructure make miners well‑positioned to serve AI compute demand.
Implications
The shift toward AI and non‑Bitcoin workloads suggests a structural change in mining economics that may extend beyond typical cyclical post‑halving adjustments. Transaction fees as a share of miner revenue have collapsed from about 7% in 2024 to roughly 1% in 2026, increasing dependence on block subsidy and Bitcoin price to sustain mining profitability.
With hashprice near breakeven for many operations, some miners face decisions to repurpose hardware or risk unprofitability. Declining difficulty may improve short‑term mining economics by lowering the computational work required for new blocks, but sustained exodus could weaken overall network security by reducing total hashpower securing the Bitcoin blockchain.
A VanEck report noted that while long‑term holder selling has eased, miner selling pressure remains steady, with aggregate miner balances around 684,000 BTC, down only 0.5% year‑over‑year. The report also cited historical patterns that show positive 90‑day forward returns about 65% of the time during periods of shrinking hashrate, offering some potential optimism for market participants.
