Bitcoin’s mining difficulty fell 3.6% at 3:49 a.m. UTC on Jan. 3.

The difficulty change suggests that a fraction of Bitcoin (BTC) miners withdrew from the network — most likely due to reduced mining profitability, according to the latest data from Bitrawr.

Fluctuations in the price of BTC are unlikely to be the reason behind this most recent adjustment. Despite this year’s market crash, BTC price remained steady since the blockchain’s last difficulty adjustment two weeks ago. The price of BTC is down 0.7% over the last seven days and 3.64% over the past 30 days.

(By Mike Dalton)