Bitcoin difficulty jump and the mining power shift

The September 19 difficulty adjustment

Bitcoin difficulty rose 4.16% to 132.76T on September 19, 2026, because the network mined blocks faster than the ten-minute target. The network difficulty reached 132.76T at block 967,680, climbing from the previous 127.45T. This adjustment follows the recent network hashrate holding steady between 900 and 960 EH/s. If you are tracking your own margins, this 4.16% increase means you should expect a 4.00% decrease in expected BTC earnings if your hashrate and uptime remain constant. The network recorded an average block time of 10 minutes 15 seconds leading into this new epoch. This difficulty adjustment happens every 2,016 blocks, which constitutes a single difficulty epoch. Because the current block time fell below the ten-minute target, the protocol increases the difficulty to ensure block production remains predictable. The difficulty is the number of hashes required to mine a single block. The network calculates this by comparing the time spent mining the last 2,016 blocks against the expected 20,160 minutes.

Post-halving economics

The April 2024 halving reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which fundamentally altered the revenue landscape for all participants across the entire global Bitcoin mining network through a permanent reduction in available supply. This structural shift forces miners to prioritize hardware efficiency to maintain profitability. The monthly USD hashprice dropped from an average of $78.43 per PH/s/day before the halving to $50.11 per PH/s/day in the twenty-one months following the event. This compression hits inefficient machines the hardest. Machines drawing 3,400W cost roughly €612 per month to run at the average EU rate of €0.25/kWh. Any miner drawing more than 20 J/TH faces significant losses at German electricity rates of €0.28/kWh. Mining in 2026 is a margin-compressed commodity business.

Higher difficulty requires more hashes per block. This trend puts immense pressure on marginal players who cannot afford the latest ASIC upgrades. Will the current hashrate plateau enough to prevent another rapid difficulty increase?

Mining pool concentration

Mining pool concentration remains high in 2026. Foundry USA leads the market with 30.1% of the hashrate, totaling 299 EH/s. AntPool holds 18.3% with 211 EH/s, while F2Pool maintains 10.0% with 113 EH/s. These top three entities control a significant portion of block production. The Nakamoto coefficient has held steady at three, meaning a small number of entities control over half the blocks. The industry faces a harsh reality where unhedged producers absorb all structural volatility. Miners using mid-range hardware from 2022 or 2023 lose money at the current electricity rates found in Europe. Foundry USA, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, uses a fully custodial model. It holds earned BTC in a pool-side account and transfers it to miner wallets once per day. AntPool, run by Bitmain, provides FPPS+ payouts. F2Pool provides PPS+ payouts while maintaining relevance through technical innovation. ViaBTC provides stable PPS-style payouts to its strong base in Russia. SpiderPool focuses on performance stability and competitive FPPS payouts. MARA Pool is the vertical integration of a public mining company. Luxor focuses on providing custom firmware and energy optimization to help miners manage risk. Binance Pool provides integration with the Binance ecosystem and uses FPPS and PPS+ payout methods.