Over the past week, data suggests that the Bitcoin blockchain has suffered a loss of nearly 100 exahashes per second (EH/s) in hashrate. Much of this loss occurred after the difficulty increased to 123.23 trillion on April 19.

Will Bitcoin balance return with the upcoming May 4th retargeting?

Data from hashrateindex.com shows that the network has lost 91 EH/s since April 17, 2025, when it was holding at 917 EH/s. As recently as April 8, the network reached an all-time high of 926 EH/s, as measured by the seven-day simple moving average (SMA). However, since April 17 and the following nine days, the metrics show a noticeable decline in computing power.

From April 17 to 26, the network lost 91 EH/s.

Much of this drop coincided with a 1.42% difficulty increase on April 19. This particular adjustment raised the difficulty level to 123.23 trillion, marking the fourth consecutive increase. The difficulty increase, which caused a drain on hashrate, stretched the intervals between blocks beyond the standard 10 minutes. Now, the average block time is 10 minutes and 34 seconds.

Since slower block generation times typically result in lower difficulty, the next update on May 4 predicts a 5.5% decrease. This shift coincides with an increase in miner revenue, as the hash rate — the expected daily value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) — has increased significantly in the past week. On April 19, it was $44.06 per PH/s; today, it has reached $48.70, up 10.53%.

The recent drop in Bitcoin’s hashrate demonstrates the dynamic equilibrium of the network, as increasing difficulty causes miners to churn and temporarily slows block generation times. The increase in hashrate amid this decline suggests increased competition among the remaining miners, reducing pressure on profitability. The expected difficulty shift reflects the self-correcting nature of the protocol, which is poised to change incentives and potentially ease the burden on miners in the current cycle.

Source: cryptonews.net