Sep 29, 2022
Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment
Bitcoin miners catch a break as difficulty drops after 2 months
Analyzing Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment and mining profitability
The latest difficulty adjustment, effective at block height 756,000, decreaesd mining difficulty by 2.14%. In this overview, we’ll analyze the effects on mining and profitability.
Bitcoin’s total hashrate
After hitting an all time-high during last difficulty adjustment, miners lifted their foot from the gas pedal.
This was likely due to Bitcoin’s high volatility over the last few days, which impacts profitability and predictability for miners.
Hashrate at the time of the adjustment averaged 224.41 EH/s, dropping almost 5 EH/s from its previous mark.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty
As a result of the lower hashrate, Bitcoin mining difficulty fell by 2.14% to 31.36T. Despite the drop, this is the second highest difficulty ever recorded on the Bitcoin network, only second to last adjustment’s.
This marks the first difficulty decrease after 4 consecutive upward adjustments—last one had been in July 21, roughly 2 months ago.
Hashprice, or mining revenue per TH/s
It’s been a crazy week for mining profitability, with Bitcoin swinging all the way up and down the $18–21K range.
Similarly, hashprice touched highs of $0.11 and lows of $0.07 over the course of the last 2 weeks.
Fortunately for miners, hashprice jumped a cent after the difficulty decrease, reaching $0.079.
Bitcoin mining profitabilty overview
Despite the drop in hashrate that led to the downward adjustment, difficulty remains historically high. This, in combination with Bitcoin’s recent volatility, places miners in a delicate position.
The good news is that those with tighter margins will enjoy at least 2 more weeks of relative stability — subject to Bitcoin price action, of course.
However, these numbers — plus recent events like Compute North’s bankruptcy filing — show that the mining industry is still in a critical situation.
In that scenario, reassessing risk management and business strategy will be crucial for the survival of many mining organizations.
The difficulty adjustment in numbers
- Difficulty adjustment block height: 756,000
- Date of the adjustment: 09/28/2022
- Average hashrate at the time of the adjustment: 224.41 EH/s
- Previous difficulty: 32.05T
- Current difficulty: 31.36T
- Difficulty change: -2.14%
- Miner revenue per TH/s (hashprice) after adjustment: $0.079
