Bitcoin experienced a significant decline of 5.7% last Thursday, marking its most substantial drop in almost a year and a half. According to Bitbo data, this adjustment occurred at block height 842,688, resulting in a decrease to 83.1 trillion. This reduction stands out as the most significant since the bear market lows, such as the 7% drop on December 6, 2022, when Bitcoin traded around $17,000.

The mining difficulty of Bitcoin indicates the level of challenge in mining new blocks relative to its minimum threshold. It adjusts automatically every 2016 blocks, ensuring an average block discovery time of 10 minutes remains constant, regardless of miner activity.

With more miners, Bitcoin's mining difficulty increases; conversely, fewer miners lead to a downward adjustment, making mining easier for those remaining.

Recent data shows a notable decline in the network hash rate after the latest difficulty adjustment on April 24. By May 8, the average hash rate had fallen from 639.58 EH/s to 578.74 EH/s in seven days, with block times averaging 10 minutes and 36 seconds before the adjustment.

Bitcoin's hash rate dropped significantly, resulting in a sharp decline in its hash price, reaching an all-time low below $50 per PH/s per day ($0.05 per TH/s per day) on April 29, coinciding with Bitcoin's price dropping below $63,000. Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $61,000.

This downward trend may offer relief to miners post-halving by slightly reducing the challenge of block mining. The pre- and post-halving adjustments increased by 4% and 2%, respectively, peaking at 88.1 trillion. The network's hash rate has decreased by approximately 11% post-halving.

The initial rise in difficulty post-halving was linked to the excitement surrounding Runes, a new fungible token standard for Bitcoin introduced during the event. After the initial excitement waned, average transaction fees dropped significantly from a peak of $128.45 on halving day to around $1, as per Mempool data.