Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 6.2% on Tuesday to breach the 100 trillion level for the first time following a record average hash rate for the network. 

The difficulty adjustment came at block height 868,896, reaching a record of 101.7 trillion, according to blockchain explorer Mempool — exceeding the prior high of 95.7 trillion set just two weeks ago.

Bitcoin mining difficulty is not expressed in specific units. It is a relative measure of how hard it is to mine a new block compared to the easiest it could ever be. The difficulty automatically adjusts every 2016 blocks — roughly two weeks — to ensure that, on average, a new block is found every 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners are actively mining.

Ahead of Tuesday’s adjustment, Bitcoin’s blocks were being mined at the faster-than-average rate of one block every nine minutes and 27 seconds, according to Clark Moody’s dashboard.

The higher the difficulty, the more computational power and energy a miner needs to find the right hash for the next block. When there’s an increase in the number of miners, the difficulty of mining bitcoin rises. Conversely, if there is a decrease in the number of miners competing to find new blocks, the protocol lowers the mining difficulty, making it easier for the remaining miners to discover blocks.

Bitcoin mining difficulty. Image: Mempool.

Last week, Bitcoin's hash rate, which measures the total computational power dedicated to the network by miners, reached a new seven-day moving average all-time high of 755.5 EH/s — exceeding the 750 EH/s level for the first time, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

Following Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20, which saw block subsidy rewards halve from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, bitcoin miners saw a substantial decline in revenue. Earnings fell from a seven-day moving average peak of $72.4 million on the day of the event to the $25 to $35 million range since — squeezing out less efficient miners from the market.

The impact is also reflected in Bitcoin’s hash price falling to all-time lows of $0.04 in September, though this has since recovered slightly to $0.045. Hash price refers to the expected value of 1 TH/s of hashing power per day, quantifying how much a miner can expect to earn from a specific amount of hash rate.

However, bitcoin miners appear to be collectively ramping up their hash power since bottoming out at a seven-day moving average of 550.3 EH/s in June, as the surviving operators — dominated by U.S. public miners — begin to deploy new capacity, upgrade their mining rigs and consolidate market share.

Public bitcoin miners’ strategies have diverged considerably in 2024, with the stocks of AI diversifiers like Core Scientific, IREN and Terawulf outperforming their pure-play bitcoin mining counterparts such as CleanSpark, Riot and MARA.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $68,694, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Price Page. The foremost cryptocurrency is down around 4% over the past week but remains up 63% year-to-date.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

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