TL;DR:
- Bitcoin climbed above $92,000 on Jan. 12 during late trading as mining difficulty eased to about 146.4 trillion, offering miners a brief breather.
- A CryptoQuant-watermarked chart shared by NekoZ showed BTC near $90,500 alongside the difficulty after months of stepwise gains.
- Barchart’s snapshot showed a dip near $90,200, a rally from $90,800 to $91,000, and BTC near $92,133, testing $92,000.
Bitcoin pushed above $92,000 on Jan. 12 after a late-session surge, arriving just as the network logged its first mining difficulty dip in months. Difficulty eased to about 146.4 trillion, a shift described as a short breather for miners. BTC was holding around $90,500 at the time of the adjustment shown on the chart. The combination of a softer difficulty setting and a sharp price jump put immediate focus on whether the breakout can stick. The move stood out after hours of trading and set the tone for early 2026 positioning.
Bitcoin mining difficulty finally blinked lower in 2026, giving miners a brief breather.$BTC pic.twitter.com/S1v1LsnhMJ
— NekoZ (@NekozTek) January 11, 2026
Mining difficulty dips as BTC rallies
A chart shared by NekoZ on X, carrying a CryptoQuant watermark, showed mining difficulty edging lower at the start of 2026 after a long stretch of stepwise gains. The dip marked a break from the steady climb that pushed the difficulty line to a peak near late 2025 highs before it turned down. On the chart’s right edge, BTC near $90,500 sat alongside difficulty around 146.4 trillion, underscoring the shift. The graphic tracks Bitcoin price in white and mining difficulty in blue from 2023 into early 2026 as the line finally eased.
Bitcoin changes difficulty roughly every two weeks, so a move lower typically points to slower block production in the prior period. In practice, that can happen when some hashing power drops off, because operators shut down less efficient machines or pause during weaker margins. A lower difficulty can lift the expected share of block rewards for miners who stay online, since they face less competition per unit of hash rate. However, the article emphasized that any relief still depends on price and fees, because revenue tracks reward value and transaction fee demand in the market.
Bitcoin jumped in late trading on Jan. 12, pushing above $92,000 after a steady climb on a 5-minute chart shared by Barchart on X into the close. Price action stayed quiet for much of the day, then shifted after a dip toward the $90,200 area. The strongest leg started around the $90,800 to $91,000 zone as green candles widened, and BTC later cleared $91,600 with limited pullbacks. By the end of the window, BTC traded near $92,133 and kept focus on whether price can hold above $92,000.
