Bitcoin's mining difficulty drops another 9% but hash rate picks up

Bitcoin's mining difficulty dropped by another 9.5% following the largest drop in the ASIC era. However, in the grand scheme of things, the current difficulty is still around the same as exactly five months ago. The current difficulty marks a 173% increase from January 1, 2018. 

As can be seen from the graph below, the mining difficulty follows hash rate very closely. The hash rate has seen an uptick in the last week rising by approximately 9.5%. If the current trend continues, the difficulty will adjust upwards in approximately 11 days.