Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Surges as Hashrate Also Rebounds

Bitcoin miners, especially those with low-power mining equipment, would not be impressed by the recent rise in mining difficulty. This follows after Thursday’s data from TheBlock revealed that there has been a 1.5% increase in Bitcoin mining activity to a record 84.4 trillion.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New Levels amid Market Optimism

Mining difficulty is a metric that measures how hard mining a new block can be as opposed to the easiest it can ever be. When the number of miners increases, Bitcoin mining difficulty usually climbs as there is more competition to find new blocks. On the other hand, if miners reduce, difficulty also follows suit, meaning that miners can then discover new blocks more easily.

The latest rise in mining difficulty, however, follows a notable rise in the network’s seven-day moving average hash rate, which just climbed back above 600 exahashes per second (EH/s).

Recall that Bitcoin mining difficulty recently saw its largest drop since December 2022. That was on May 9 when the metric fell by 5.9%, in what was a direct consequence of the April 20 halving event. Although the drop meant that miner subsidy rewards were also reduced, a temporary surge in transaction fees, linked to the hype around Runes, initially cushioned the effect of that decline.

Since the adjustment, Bitcoin’s hashrate has been hovering between 580-590 EH/s. However, the heightened optimism around the approval of spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States has sparked an industry-wide price increase. This optimism has now brought Bitcoin’s hashrate to approximately 606 EH/s.

Hash Price Recovery Signals Improved Miner Revenue Prospects

As if to maintain a balance with the difficulty adjustment, Bitcoin’s hash price has seen a little but noteworthy recovery. After plunging to an all-time low of under $50 per petahash per second (PH/s) per day on April 29, the hash price rebounded to $55 per PH/s per day earlie in the week. The hash price is a metric widely used to calculate miner revenue potential.

As the crypto community keenly awaits the SEC’s decisions, the interlinked dynamics of Bitcoin mining difficulty, hashrate, and price movements have once again come to the fore. The latest developments have shown how the impact of regulatory uncertainties can be felt across in and out of the sector. Not only do these speculations affect investor sentiment, but they also impact operational metrics like mining difficulty and hash price.