Bitcoin Miner Revenue Drops 9.44% Following Network Difficulty Jump

3 weeks ago

NewsPublished:May 18, 2026, 5:30 PM

After approaching $40 per petahash per 2nd (PH/s) successful hashprice terms, bitcoin’s latest terms diminution triggered a pullback successful hashprice, reducing mining profitability since May 14. Conditions tightened further the adjacent time erstwhile the trouble accommodation arrived, pushing mining trouble 3.12% higher than the erstwhile epoch.

Published: May 18, 2026, 5:30 PM

Bitcoin Miner Revenue Drops 9.44% Following Network Difficulty Jump

Key Takeaways

  • Bitcoin trouble deed 136.61T connected May 15 arsenic miner gross fell 9.44%.
  • Hashrateindex.com information shows PH/s worth slid from $38.97 to $35.29 successful 4 days.
  • Bitcoin fees made up conscionable 0.59% of rewards, keeping absorption connected BTC terms trends.

Bitcoin Petahash Value Slides to $35 arsenic Mining Difficulty Rises

Although the erstwhile week offered miners a much favorable stretch, conditions person tightened considerably implicit the past 4 days. Bitcoin’s web trouble climbed connected May 15 astatine artifact tallness 949536, marking the archetypal upward accommodation successful much than a month, oregon 2 afloat epochs. The 3.12% summation lifted the trouble standing from 132.47 trillion to the existent 136.61 trillion.

It besides marked the 4th trouble summation of 2026 and the 3rd largest accommodation recorded truthful acold this year. Bitcoin’s mining trouble reaching 136.61 trillion means the web is present astir 136.61 trillion times much hard to excavation a artifact than it was erstwhile Satoshi Nakamoto archetypal launched Bitcoin successful 2009. Yet the trouble accommodation is acold from the lone unit weighing connected bitcoin mining participants.

The strain has intensified implicit the past 4 days pursuing the latest trouble epoch increase, arsenic gross tied to hashprice continues to thin. In elemental terms, hashprice represents the estimated regular worth of 1 PH/s of hashing power. Data recorded by hashrateindex.com shows hashprice stood astatine $38.97 connected May 14. Since then, arsenic mining trouble climbed, bitcoin miners are present earning 9.44% less, with a azygous petahash presently valued astatine astir $35.29 per day.

This comes arsenic bitcoin retreated from an intraday precocious supra $82,000 connected May 14 and present changes hands astatine $76,680 per coin arsenic of 3 p.m. ET connected Monday afternoon, May 18. Current statistic constituent to a imaginable trouble diminution astatine the adjacent epoch accommodation expected connected oregon astir May 29, though with 1,576 blocks near to excavation astatine property time, those projections could displacement considerably earlier then.

Block intervals are moving astatine a somewhat slower pace, contributing to the projected reduction, but lone marginally, with mean times hovering astir 10 minutes and 12 seconds. Bitcoin transaction fees tied to onchain transfers besides stay comparatively insignificant, accounting for conscionable 0.59% of the full artifact reward implicit the past 24 hours. From a gross standpoint, mining profitability yet hinges connected trouble epochs and hashprice conditions, which are babelike connected bitcoin’s marketplace performance.

In presumption of hashrate, the web concisely climbed supra the 1,000 exahash per 2nd (EH/s), oregon 1 zettahash per 2nd (ZH/s), threshold connected May 11, conscionable days earlier May 14. Since then, computational powerfulness has eased little and is presently moving on astatine 959.03 EH/s arsenic of 3:30 p.m. ET connected May 18. Both the gross descent and the trouble emergence person contributed to this factor.

For miners already operating connected constrictive margins, the existent situation leaves small country for mistake arsenic ratio and vigor costs go progressively decisive. A humble rebound successful bitcoin’s terms oregon a softer trouble accommodation could connection impermanent relief, but the sector’s contiguous absorption inactive appears tied to whether marketplace momentum tin outpace the network’s relentless computational enlargement successful the coming days, weeks, and months ahead.

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