Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Below Peak for Record 374 Days

The record duration matters less than the shape of the recovery: difficulty bottomed roughly 20% under the peak in mid-June 2026 and has since clawed back most of that gap, suggesting hashrate is returning rather than capitulating. The comparison to 2011 and 2021 is instructive because those were shock-driven resets, whereas this stretch looks more like a slow grind, which changes how much stress it implies for marginal miners. The near-term signal is the expected further decline around Nov. 13 — whether that drop marks a fresh softening or just noise around a recovering trend is the open question.