Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment
Bitcoin hashrate soars, increasing mining difficulty by 9.26%
Analyzing Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment and mining profitability
The latest difficulty adjustment, effective at block height 751,968, increased mining difficulty by 9.26%. In this overview, we’ll analyze the effects on mining and profitability.
Bitcoin’s total hashrate
Bitcoin’s hashrate saw one of the most meteoric rises this year last week, jumping very close to previous all-time highs.
Indeed, hashrate at the time of the adjustment averaged 221.72 EH/s — only 0.88% below its record and over 9.25% since the previous difficulty change. This increase comes as a consequences of newer, more efficient miners joining the network, as well as many miners resuming their operations now that the hottest days of the year are behind us.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty
As a consequence of the sudden growth in hashrate, Bitcoin mining difficulty skyrocketed to 30.98T — a 9.26% change from the previous epoch. This constitutes the third consecutive increase in a row and the highest since January 21.
This is also the third time in history that difficulty surpasses the 30T line, and the second highest mining difficulty Bitcoin has ever reached. The record is currently 31.25T, reached on May 11. We’ll see if miners can come together to set a new all-time high in two weeks time.
Hashprice, or mining revenue per TH/s
Unfortunately for miners, hashprice accentuated its long-term trend down, and the latest difficulty adjustment, along with the negative price action of the last few weeks, only reinforced it.
Therefore, mining revenue per TH/s fell to $0.84 — the lowest it’s been since July 12. It’s also likely that, with new hashrate coming to the network, we’ll see it go even lower, at least until we see more favorable price action.
Bitcoin mining profitabilty overview
Without a clear reversal on the market trend, the next couple of months are going to be tough on miners. New hashrate coming to Bitcoin and with negative price action are both driving profitability to yearly lows.
The macro context doesn’t look to well either, with inflation and electricity prices soaring across the globe. As the cost per kWh keeps soaring, we’ll likely see miners with older, less efficient hardware capitulating first.
In contrast, miners with higher profit margins may be able to endure tougher conditions, although they’d be forced to liquidate their inventory.
We’ve already seen this happening in June this year, and will probably happen again in the short term.
The difficulty adjustment in numbers
- Difficulty adjustment block height: 751,968
- Date of the adjustment: 08/31/2022
- Average hashrate at the time of the adjustment: 221.72 EH/s
- Previous difficulty: 28.17T
- Current difficulty: 30.98T
- Difficulty change: +9.26%
- Miner revenue per TH/s (hashprice) after adjustment: $0.84
