Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Adjustment
Bitcoin difficulty hits yet another all-time high amidst market downturn
Analyzing Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment and mining profitability
The latest difficulty adjustment, effective at block height 764,064, increased mining difficulty by 0.51%. In this overview, we’ll analyze the effects on mining and profitability.
Bitcoin’s total hashrate
After two weeks of relative stability, hashrate hovered barely above that of the last difficulty adjustment.
Indeed, hashrate averaged 264.18 EH/s at the time of the adjustment—almost exactly 1 EH/s over that from the last change, which was 263.14 EH/s.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty
The mild increase in hashrate was enough to set a new difficulty all-time high for the Bitcoin network, which reached a record 36.95T — 0.51% from the previous difficulty setting, and only 0.29% above the its previous maximum.
Still, a new all-time high is a new all-time high, regardless of the margins. And once again, we can say that the Bitcoin network has never been more secure than it is today.
Hashprice, or mining revenue per TH/s
A cumbersome epoch for Bitcoin miners lies behind, and all seems to indicate that the one to come will be even more so.
After the recent price action — which was mostly induced by the collapse of FTX — and the increase in difficulty, miner revenue per TH/s, or hashprice, has dropped to a new all-time low of $0.056.
This is a 24.32% drop from last adjustment. By that time, Bitcoin had recovered above $21K — a line it quickly lost after the mentioned recent events.
Bitcoin mining profitability overview
There’s two very clear sides of the coin for the way the current Bitcoin mining landscape is developing.
On the positive side, hashrate growth shows miners’ resiliency in face of this extremely adverse market conditions.
The negative side is that the current price action and increasing difficulty are pushing miners with thinner margins into a critical situation, as profitability keeps dropping to new lows and the sustainability of their operations becomes more and more compromised.
With some of these miners already turning to liquidating their existing capital, like Bitcoin reserves, ASIC miners, and sometimes entire facilities, it’s clear that miners with effective business strategy and risk management will come out on top once the storm passes.
The difficulty adjustment in numbers
- Difficulty adjustment block height: 764,064
- Date of the adjustment: 11/21/2022
- Average hashrate at the time of the adjustment: 264.18 EH/s
- Previous difficulty: 36.76T
- Current difficulty: 36.95T
- Difficulty change: + 0.51%
- Miner revenue per TH/s (hashprice) after adjustment: $0.056
