Bitcoin mining difficulty plummets by 11%… Biggest drop since Chinese mining ban
The mining difficulty of the Bitcoin (BTC) network fell 11.1%, the largest drop since China’s widespread mining ban in 2021. In addition, the United States recently approved the establishment of the first cryptocurrency bank under President Trump, and China sent a strong signal to the market by announcing a new ban on unregulated stablecoins and real asset-backed tokens (RWAs).
According to cryptocurrency data platform CoinWarz, the current mining difficulty of the Bitcoin network is 125.86T, a decrease of 11.1% in the last 24 hours. This is the largest drop in a single adjustment cycle since the introduction of the automatic difficulty adjustment system. Recently, the block creation speed has been shortened from an average of more than 11 minutes to about 9 minutes and 28 seconds.
It is expected to rebound to 132.9T on February 20th, when the next mining difficulty adjustment occurs. This sharp decline is due to two factors. One is that mining profitability has deteriorated as the price of Bitcoin has recently plummeted by more than half, and the other is that the power infrastructure has been hit by the severe cold that struck the entire United States, causing a significant temporary decrease in the hash rate of miners.
Trump administration grants national banking license to cryptocurrency-friendly bank ‘Erebor’
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted national banking charter to a cryptocurrency startup for the first time during President Trump’s second term. The target is a new financial institution called ‘Erebor Bank’. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the bank plans to provide customized financial services to start-up companies, companies attracting venture investment, and high net worth individuals based on an initial capital of approximately $635 million (approximately KRW 930.8 billion).
Bank of Erebor was founded by Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, who sits on its board of directors although he does not participate in day-to-day operations. It is also supported by major technology investors in Silicon Valley, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, and Elad Gill. This is also an alternative to fill the so-called ‘innovative finance gap’ after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023.
China completely bans issuance of yuan-linked stablecoins and RWAs
Eight financial regulators, including the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), announced in a joint statement that they would ban the issuance of yuan-backed stablecoins and real asset-backed tokens (RWAs) without regulatory approval. This measure applies to all individuals and companies inside and outside China, and includes stablecoins that were issued indirectly in the form of offshore issuance, effectively blocking the circulation of yuan-based cryptocurrencies.
The announcement warned, “Issuing or trading digital assets linked to the Chinese yuan without clear prior approval from regulatory agencies may be illegal.” This measure is the first official regulatory mention of RWAs, and means that the ‘tokenization’ technique, which converts real assets into digital tokens and distributes them, has been incorporated into China’s financial risk management system.
Chinese authorities view these measures as necessary for the controlled spread of the ‘digital yuan (e-CNY)’, citing that unlicensed digital assets pose a threat to the stability of the national financial system and consumer protection. This essentially reflects the policy stance of excluding privately issued cryptocurrencies and accelerating the transition to a state-centered digital currency system.
These three major issues simultaneously show the conflicting trends of regulation, infrastructure, and ecosystem expansion in the global cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin’s mining structure is sensitive to environmental and market shocks, and the United States and China are pursuing the institutionalization of cryptocurrency finance from different directions.
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Bitcoin mining difficulty plummeted by more than 11%, and while the United States officially approved a bank specializing in cryptocurrency, China completely banned the issuance of private stablecoins and RWAs.
With the regulatory flow in the global market heading in the opposite direction, investors must be able to read the ‘movement of the entire board’ rather than simply trading anymore.
Token Post Academy provides training to systematically analyze these structural changes.
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Stage 6: The Professional In the course, you will learn strategies to make profits even in falling markets using futures and options. If you understand the principles of funding costs, margin structures, and hedging, you can respond to unpredictable events such as sudden drops in mining difficulty.
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Step 7: The Macro Master In the course, we read the trends of macro issues such as Chinese regulations and the expansion of U.S. financial infrastructure, and analyze the correlation between global liquidity and the crypto market.
In a market that changes every day, the ability to read ‘context’ beyond ‘news’ determines future assets.
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We summarized articles using a language model based on TokenPost.ai. Key content in the text may be excluded or different from the facts.
This article was written based on market data and chart analysis and is not a recommendation to invest in specific stocks.
date: 2026-02-08 00:49:00