The Bitcoin mining difficulty level rose to an all-time high in its latest adjustment on Friday while the total Bitcoin hashrate also reached an all-time-high during a global cryptocurrency sell-off.

Fast facts

  • The mining difficulty level rose by 9.32% to 26.64 trillion at block height 719.712, reflecting its most difficult level in history, according to data from BTC.com.
  • The total hashrate reached an all-time high of 198.86 exahashes per second on Thursday, Blockchain.com data show, with its latest reading at 191.3 EH/s on Sunday.
  • Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how hard a miner would have to work to verify transactions on the block, meaning larger difficulty levels lead to less profits for miners.