As a result of the next scheduled recalculation of network parameters, the mining difficulty of the leading cryptocurrency confidently dropped by five percent, settling at the mark of 127.17 trillion. This event became a logical continuation of the trend in computing power correction, as mid-June saw a record drop of over ten percent, followed by only a partial recovery. When comparing current realities to the beginning of this year, when the indicator reached 148.26 trillion, the gap is an impressive seventeen percent, and from the historical maximum of October 2025, the network has already retreated by twenty-two percent. At the same time, the average hashrate managed to recover and crossed the one zettahash per second mark, while the inter-block interval decreased to nine minutes, indicating a stabilization of the blockchain's basic operational parameters.

Analysts at Glassnode note that the smoothed hashrate indicator using a seven-day moving average is currently around 864.4 exahashes per second, confirming the steady downward trend observed since the peak values of 1.15 zettahashes. Against the backdrop of the overall decrease in network difficulty, industry metrics have begun to show the first signs of recovery: according to Hashrate Index data, the hashprice confidently bounced off local lows and grew from thirty to thirty-two dollars per petahash per day. Despite this positive rebound, the profitability metric remains under serious pressure, as it is noticeably inferior to the critical breakeven boundary of forty dollars, forcing mining farm operators to seek additional ways to optimize their business models.

It is precisely the persisting pressure on the fundamental profitability of digital gold mining that is causing the largest industry players to radically change their strategic paradigm. Observing the unflattering hashprice indicators and rising electricity costs, miners have begun to rapidly transfer their colossal computing power and infrastructure to the more profitable sector of high-performance computing for artificial intelligence. This mass exodus of capital from classic mining into the AI industry not only explains the current drop in network hashrate and difficulty but also heralds the beginning of a new era, where traditional cryptocurrency mining is gradually giving way to servicing the global needs of machine learning and neural network technologies.

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The material is prepared solely for informational purposes and does not constitute a financial advice or recommendation.