Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped by 10%, and Zimbabwe legalizes crypto companies: digest for June 15
The morning of June 15 greets the market with moderate optimism. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading near $65,654, recovering from an overnight low of $63,634 and aiming for a high of $65,927. Ethereum (ETH) also started the day with an increase, settling at $1,717. However, the real drivers of attention today are structural changes in the network and regulatory shifts.
Market: Leaders and Laggards
Among the top 10 assets by market cap, Dogecoin shows the best daily performance (+7.86%), while Solana became the weekly leader (+8.16%). The only asset showing a decline over 24 hours is the stablecoin Tether. In the top 100, Worldcoin (+19.24% daily) and SKYAI (+77.59% weekly) stand out. The worst dynamics were recorded for Humanity (-63.91% weekly) and Audiera (-17.41% daily).
Zimbabwe Introduces Registration for Crypto Companies
Zimbabwe officially launches a mechanism for regulating the crypto industry. Companies involved in buying, selling, transferring, or storing digital assets are required to register annually with the Financial Intelligence Unit under the central bank. Initial registration will cost $500, with renewal at $400. Operating without a license is now considered an offense. Notably, the 2018 banking ban on cryptocurrency transactions appears to remain in effect. This is a step towards bringing informal traders out of the shadows, rather than cutting them off — the low fee, compared to hundreds of thousands of dollars in Nigeria, clearly indicates the authorities' desire to cover the sector, not suppress it.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops by 10%
Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 10.09% — from 138.96 to 124.93 trillion. This is the second-largest drop in 2026 and the 11th in the network's history. The reason is the June price correction of BTC by approximately 15%, which squeezed miners' margins and forced some operators to shut down unprofitable equipment. As a result, blocks began to be mined more slowly, triggering an automatic difficulty adjustment. The reduction in difficulty increases mining output per unit of active power by about 11%, improving economics for modern miners. However, the overall picture remains grim: with the price around $63,780, the estimated mining cost is $84,300, meaning mining is still unprofitable for most of the network. Some operators continue to redirect capacity toward AI and high-performance computing.
Protecting Ethereum from Quantum Threats for 7 Cents
Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku project lead Nicola Consigny proposed a method to protect Ethereum accounts from future quantum threats for just $0.07 — without the need for a hard fork. The solution, called SPHINCS, adapts the NIST post-quantum signature standard for operation on the Ethereum network, reducing the cost of signature verification on the blockchain. This is seen as an intermediate bridge to a more advanced leanSPHINCS system. Recall that in April, a researcher managed to crack a 15-bit key using a quantum computer, but Bitcoin keys (256 bits) are significantly longer. According to Glassnode estimates, about 10% of all bitcoins are structurally vulnerable to a future quantum attack, another 20.6% are operationally vulnerable, while nearly 70% of the supply remains out of the risk zone.
My comment: The drop in mining difficulty is a classic market safety valve that temporarily eases life for surviving operators but does not solve the fundamental problem of unprofitability at current prices. However, the proposal for quantum protection of Ethereum is a timely and elegant step that could become a security standard for the entire crypto space. The market has not yet assessed this risk, but investors should keep their finger on the pulse.