TLDR:
Bitcoin mining difficulty reached an all-time high of 92.67 trillion on September 11, 2024
The increase comes amid falling miner revenues and profitability
Bitcoin’s hash rate is also climbing, averaging 693 exahashes per second
Hashprice (miner revenue per unit of computing power) fell to a record low
Some miners are diversifying operations or exploring new revenue sources like Fractal Bitcoin
Bitcoin mining difficulty has reached a new all-time high of 92.67 trillion, marking a 3.6% increase on September 11, 2024. This surge in difficulty comes at a time when the cryptocurrency mining industry is facing challenges, including declining revenues and profitability for miners.
The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty is designed to adjust every two weeks, or every 2,016 blocks, to maintain a consistent block discovery time of approximately 10 minutes.
As more miners join the network or existing miners add more computational power, the difficulty increases to ensure the stability of block creation. This latest adjustment indicates a growing amount of computing power being dedicated to Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin mining stats from Mempool
Alongside the rising difficulty, Bitcoin’s hash rate has also been steadily climbing. The seven-day moving average hash rate reached 693 exahashes per second (EH/s), demonstrating the increasing computational power being applied to the network.
The hash rate is a measure of how many calculations mining equipment can perform per second to solve the mathematical problems necessary for transaction validation and block creation.
However, this increase in mining difficulty and hash rate comes at a cost to miners. The hashprice, which estimates how much miners earn based on their computational power, has fallen to a record low of less than $40 per petahash.
This decline in profitability is putting pressure on mining operations, especially those that have been struggling since the Bitcoin halving event in April 2024, which reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
The decreased profitability has led some miners to explore alternative revenue streams. Some are diversifying their operations to include providing services for AI companies.
Others are looking into new opportunities within the Bitcoin ecosystem, such as Fractal Bitcoin, a scaling solution that could potentially offer miners an additional $1.41 in revenue per PH/s/day.
Despite these challenges, the increasing difficulty and hash rate demonstrate the continued interest and investment in Bitcoin mining.
The higher difficulty also contributes to the overall security of the Bitcoin network, as it would require significantly more energy and resources to attempt any attacks on the blockchain.
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