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Mining difficulty drops by most since 2021 as miners capitulate

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Mining difficulty drops by most since 2021 as miners capitulate

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped by around 11%, its largest decline since China’s 2021 crackdown on the industry, after a sharp decline in hashrate triggered by plunging prices and widespread winter storm-related outages in the U.S.

Mining difficulty, which determines how hard it is to find new Bitcoin blocks, adjusts roughly every two weeks to maintain a 10-minute block interval on the network.

The latest change brought the metric down from over 141.6 trillion to about 125.86 trillion, according to Blockchain.com data, signaling a steep drop in the number of active machines securing the network.

The decline follows a series of blows to miners. Bitcoin prices have fallen significantly from an all-time high of $126,000 in October to around $69,500.

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That price drop forced many miners, especially those running outdated equipment and facing high energy costs, to shut down. Some also repurposed their hardware to focus on artificial intelligence (AI), as megacap firms offer stable contracts and often economically irresistible terms.

Bitfarms (BITF) notably saw its share price surge after saying it’s no longer a bitcoin company, and is instead focusing on data center development for high-performance computing and AI workloads.

Bitcoin mining revenue on a per terahash basis, measured via the hashprice, has plunged from nearly $70 at the time the cryptocurrency was trading at an all-time high, to now stand at little over $35.

Severe winter storms, particularly in Texas, compounded the situation. Grid operators issued curtailment requests to conserve electricity for residential users. Public mining firms scaled back production, with some seeing daily bitcoin output fall by more than 60%.

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Although a drop in difficulty might appear alarming, it functions as a self-correcting mechanism. For miners who remain online, the reduced competition can increase profitability and help maintain the business model.

Historically, major difficulty drops have also signaled market capitulation, often preceding a stabilization or rebound in price as miners sell the BTC they mine to cover operational expenses.

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Crypto World

Brazil’s New Finance Minister Puts Crypto Tax Policy on Pause: Report

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Taxes, Brazil

Brazil’s Finance Minister, Dario Durigan, is putting crypto tax policy on the back burner until after the country’s presidential elections in October 2026 to avoid pushing for “divisive” tax changes during an election year. 

Regulators and government officials originally slated a public consultation on crypto tax policy for later this year, which may be delayed until 2027, but still “remains on the radar,” sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Brazil ended its no tax policy on gains from smaller cryptocurrency sales or transfers in June 2025, shifting to a 17.5% flat tax on crypto capital gains, including those made from offshore and self-custodial holdings.

Under the previous rules, residents who sold up to 35,000 Brazilian real, equivalent to about $6,587, per month were exempt from capital gains taxes on any profits, and investors who surpassed this threshold were subject to progressive tax rates between 15% and 22.5%.

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In November 2025, Banco Central do Brasil, the country’s central bank, published rules that treat stablecoin transfers as foreign currency exchange, subject to the same tax laws.

The Brazilian government is also eyeing proposals to tax cryptocurrencies used for international payments and is aligning its reporting rules to be consistent with regulations under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), an international monitoring standard for crypto transactions.

The decision to place the crypto tax consultation on hiatus comes during a time when the South American country is rapidly adopting crypto, and the industry is growing in Brazil.

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Related: Brazil’s Pix instant payment system expands to Argentina

Brazil is one of the top countries in the world for crypto adoption

Brazil ranks number five on Chainalysis’s crypto Global Adoption Index and ranks number one in terms of adoption in the Latin America region.

Taxes, Brazil
Brazil ranks number five globally in terms of crypto adoption. Source: Chainalysis

The country has a population of over 213 million people, with a median age of 33.5 years, and over 91% of the population lives in urban areas, according to data from Worldometer.

In 2025, “Latin America’s crypto adoption grew by 63%, reflecting rising adoption across both retail and institutional segments,” according to Chainalysis.

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