Just wondering if anyone has noticed a trend of longer block times when the price drops. I presume some proportion of miners become unprofitable. And that of those - some might need to convert to fiat in the short term to cover costs and so pause mining.
Bitcoin mining is no longer a business that a sole miner can pursue and with the last halving, it is becoming difficult for small miners too. Only big companies are into Bitcoin mining which is a shame as it was never meant to be controlled by those who have money or you can say the corporates. While 10 minutes it should take for the miners to mine a new block sometimes it goes beyond that time which I agree but that does not affect the price of Bitcoin. If you want to know the reason why there is a delay in mining the blocks currently then you should go ahead and read this,
Bitcoin: Network Difficulty Reaches an Unprecedented level.