Bitcoin Difficulty Climbs 3.87% as Hashrate Slips and Next Cut Looms

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Well, well, well, look who’s making a comeback. After a pleasant little 7.76% reduction in the last difficulty adjustment, Bitcoin decided to turn the tables and raise the difficulty by a whopping 3.87% at block height 943488. Yep, the third increase this year, because apparently, things weren’t difficult enough already.

Key Takeaways:

  • Bitcoin difficulty climbs 3.87% at block 943488 as hashrate takes a nosedive with a 60.45 EH/s drop. A 15.73% reduction is on the way, so don’t get too comfortable.
  • Miners are now faced with $30.67 PH/s hashprice and just a 0.56% fee. Can’t make this stuff up-moving towards AI instead of actually making Bitcoin. Smart, right?
  • The Bitcoin network eyes April 19, 2026, for an adjustment, but don’t hold your breath. Blocks are slowing down, so maybe difficulty will ease up a bit.

Bitcoin Mining Gets Even Tighter

The Bitcoin network has already gone through seven adjustments this year, with three increases and four decreases. It’s like a rollercoaster, but one that never quite gets to the fun part. The most recent reduction happened just two weeks ago, after a series of tiny gains.

Now, after this latest adjustment, Bitcoin’s difficulty is up by 3.87%, making it even harder to find those blocks. It’s now a staggering 138.97 trillion times more difficult than when Bitcoin first launched. But hey, who doesn’t love a good challenge?

As of 4 p.m. Eastern, 181 of the 2,016 blocks in the current epoch have been mined. That’s roughly 9% of the way to the next adjustment expected on April 19, 2026. Sure, it’s still early, but the forecast points to a juicy 14.27% reduction. Let’s see if that holds up.

Image source: hashrateindex.com on April 4, 2026.

So, what’s going on? Well, it’s a little thing called a slowdown. The block times have been creeping up-11 minutes 39 seconds on average, much slower than the usual 10-minute interval.

Bitcoin’s total hashrate on Saturday, April 4, 2026, via hashrateindex.com.

The culprit? Hashrate. Bitcoin.com News reported that the network’s total computational power hit a record high of 1,022 EH/s in late March, only to plummet by 60.45 EH/s to 961.55 EH/s now. If that isn’t the perfect metaphor for 2026, I don’t know what is.

Revenue Compression Tightens the Squeeze

Ah, the joys of revenue compression. Because if you thought Bitcoin miners were already in a good spot, think again. Miners are shifting their focus to AI infrastructure instead of mining Bitcoin. Why? Because apparently, they’re not making enough money to justify the effort. This is a trend that’s gaining momentum, as AI promises a better ROI than the whole “mining Bitcoin” thing.

A daily hashprice of $30.67 per PH/s ranks as one of the lowest levels miners have seen since the early days of Bitcoin. And with 106,335 blocks left until the next halving, things are about to get a whole lot tighter.

And let’s not forget about those pesky fees, which account for a mere 0.56% of the block reward. It’s like getting a nickel after spending hours at work. But don’t worry, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment is designed for this. If miners bail and hashrate drops, the difficulty will adjust downward, hopefully making things a little easier for everyone. Or at least that’s the theory.

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2026-04-05 01:58