Bitcoin miners saw a 1.26% drop in mining difficulty on Thursday, the third time this year, while the price fell to less than US$40,000.
See related article: Cryptos slump over inflation, Shanghai lockdown and war concerns
Fast facts
- The mining difficulty level is now at 28.23 trillion at block height 731,808, after it saw an increase of 4.13% on March 31 following two consecutive drops in the same month when miners might have unplugged due to energy costs, according to data from BTC.com.
- Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how hard a miner would have to work to verify transactions on the block, or “dig out” Bitcoins. The difficulty level undergoes an adjustment every 2,016 blocks, which usually takes about two weeks.
- Such mining difficulty adjustments are highly correlated to the changes in the mining hashrate, which refers to the level of computing power required to mine — when the hashrate increases, the mining difficulty typically follows.
- Kazakhstan became the world’s second-largest Bitcoin producer last year after miners moved there en masse following China’s mining crackdowns, but unstable power supplies and government crackdowns are triggering a new migration wave.
- In March, authorities in Kazakhstan said they seized over 67,000 pieces of mining equipment worth more than US$190 million as the country suffered from frequent power shortages.
See related article: Ex-Kazakh president’s brother busted for illegal crypto mining