TL;DR
- New ATH in Mining Difficulty: Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new all-time high of 86.39 trillion on April 10, 2024, indicating a nearly 4% increase from the previous level.
- Pre-Halving Hashrate Surge: The 7-day moving average hashrate for Bitcoin surged by 23% since the year’s start, hitting over 630 EH/s as miners ramp up activity before the fourth halving on April 24.
- Post-Halving Speculations: Analysts speculate up to 20% of Bitcoin’s hash rate may become inactive after the halving, with the current increase in difficulty highlighting the competitive nature of Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin mining difficulty has set a new all-time high (ATH) of 86.39 trillion, just days before the much-anticipated halving event. This record-breaking difficulty level was achieved on April 10, 2024, marking a nearly 4% increase from the previous level of 83 trillion set on March 28.
The mining difficulty of Bitcoin is a measure of how challenging it is to mine a new block or solve mathematical puzzles under Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. This adjustment occurs every 2,016 blocks, or approximately every two weeks, as Bitcoin is programmed to self-adjust the difficulty level to maintain a target block time of 10 minutes.
The rise in mining difficulty is due to the fast growth in Bitcoin’s 7-day moving average hashrate, which has gone up by 23% since the start of the year, hitting a record high of over 630 EH/s. This surge in hashrate shows that miners worldwide are competing to boost their hashrate before Bitcoin’s fourth halving, anticipated on April 24.
However, this increase in difficulty and hashrate has led to a drop in Bitcoin’s hashprice to around $105/PH/s. This figure is expected to reduce by 50% immediately after the halving.
Anticipating Changes in the Bitcoin Mining Market Post-Halving
It’s worth noting that Bitcoin’s hashrate has increased significantly over the past four years, a period where block subsidies were down to 6.25 BTC. Despite China’s mining ban in 2021 and the bear market environment throughout 2022, Bitcoin’s hashrate has more than five-folded since the last adjustment ahead of the previous halving in May 2020.
With the halving event on the horizon, the cryptocurrency community is closely monitoring how the upcoming changes will affect the Bitcoin market. Speculations suggest that the BTC hash rate may decrease following the 2024 Bitcoin halving.
Galaxy’s mining analysts have estimated that up to 20% of Bitcoin’s existing hash rate could potentially become inactive after the halving event. This record-breaking difficulty level underscores the competitive nature of Bitcoin mining and the anticipation surrounding the halving event. It remains to be seen how these dynamics will play out post-halving.
