Bitcoin Miner Revenue Drops 9.44% Following Network Difficulty Jump

Bitcoin’s recent price pullback and a network difficulty increase have reduced mining profitability and pressured miner revenue. On May 15 difficulty rose 3.12% to 136.61T, the fourth increase of 2026, and hashprice fell from $38.97 to $35.29 per PH/s over four days, a 9.44% revenue decline. Network hashrate eased from just over 1,000 EH/s to about 959.03 EH/s (May 18). Onchain fees remain negligible (0.59% of rewards), so miners’ revenue sensitivity is driven mainly by BTC price and difficulty epochs. A softer upcoming difficulty adjustment is possible around May 29, but near-term relief depends on BTC price recovery or slower computational growth.