Bitcoin miners saw another mining difficulty adjustment on Tuesday, with an increase of 4.71%, according to data from BTC.com.
Fast facts
- The mining difficulty level is now at 19.89 trillion at block height 703,584, reflecting the most difficult level since a previous adjustment on June 14, the data show.
- The latest increase follows five increases after four consecutive declines since May when China intensified its clampdown on the sector.
- 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. The more difficult to mine Bitcoin, the less profitable for miners. When the hashrate increases, the mining difficulty typically follows. That said, the expected mining difficulty increase could be largely due to a recovering hashrate.
- The total Bitcoin hashrate has been steadily recovering since July 3, as suggested by data from Blockchain.com. The total hashrate had been nose-diving from mid-May, plunging from 180.67 million terahashes per second — an all-time high — to 84.79 million on July 3, the lowest since September 2019, according to the data.
- On Tuesday, the hashrate reading was at 146.66 million TH/s.