Bitcoin mining difficulty rises 5.54% in 11th upward adjustment of 2026

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 5.54% to 148.36T, marking its 11th increase of 2026 as network hash rate declined. The latest adjustment took effect at block height 973,728, lifting the difficulty level to 148.36T. Of the 22 difficulty adjustments this year, 11 have been increases and 11 have been decreases. Bitcoin automatically adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, roughly two weeks, to keep average block production close to 10 minutes as computing power changes. Higher difficulty means miners need more computing work on average to earn the same bitcoin reward. It raises the computational requirements for producing valid blocks.