Bitcoin mining difficulty hits new high at 101.6T

Recent data shows that Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty has reached an all-time high of 101.65 trillion at block 868,958.

This jump comes barely two weeks after the metric hit its previous high of 95.67 trillion.

BTC Mining Difficulty Increases By Almost 15%

According to Bitcoin analytics platform CoinWarz, BTC mining difficulty has risen sharply to an all-time high of 101.65T, a 14.98% increase over the past month. The data also revealed that difficulty increased by 6.24% in the last week and by 12.11% over the last 90 days.

Bitcoin mining difficulty refers to the challenge miners face to mine the next block of the blockchain. It is a measure that shows the average number of hashes required to find a valid solution for the next block and collect the corresponding mining reward.

The metric is adjusted every two weeks to ensure that blocks are mined at a constant rate. The difficulty increases if previous blocks are generated faster than the block time specified by the chain.

Bitcoin’s global hash rate also reached an all-time high of 945.07 EH/s (ExaHash per second) in October, according to data from CoinWarz. While the number had dropped to 732.35 EH/s at the time of writing, the figure still represents a 6.32% increase over the past 30 days.

The next mining difficulty adjustment is expected to occur on November 19, 2024, and CoinWarz analysts expect it to drop from the current level to around 96.20 T. The change could occur after 1,951 more blocks are mined, which is approximately 14 days from today.

The difficulty of BTC mining raises a concern for the industry

According to CryptoQuant, the hash rates and difficulty of Bitcoin mining could increase due to an increase in the number of machines mining the cryptocurrency. In addition, the data analysis platform revealed that competition in Bitcoin mining has intensified and mining costs are likely to increase.

Verified CryptoQuant author and market analyst Yonsei_dent stated that intense competition puts the mining industry at risk as transaction fees are capped.

They believe that without sufficient transaction fees to offset operational expenses, miners could come under greater financial pressure and the Bitcoin network, along with the long-term viability of its mining ecosystem, will become less sustainable.

Additionally, a recent JP Morgan report cited by Finance Magnates highlighted an industry-wide decline in revenue collected from BTC mining activities for the fourth consecutive month in October.

The bank also stated that, on average, Bitcoin miners received a daily reward of $41,800 per EH/s hash rate, a 1% drop from what they collected in September.

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