Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Surpasses 80 Trillion Amid Halving Predictions
On February 15, during its automatic adjustment, Bitcoin mining difficulty saw an approximate 6% increase. Bitcoin mining difficulty, which indicates how challenging it is to solve the mathematical problems associated with a block, surpassed 80 trillion on Friday, February 16, according to BTC.com. The network’s hash rate, measuring the total computational power of miners, reached 562.81 exahashes per second (EH/s), and the mining difficulty hit a record of 81.73 trillion. Bitcoin mining difficulty has been on a steady rise since January 2023 and is expected to reach 100 trillion in the coming months.
In Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system, mining difficulty measures how difficult it is to add a new block to the blockchain. Higher difficulty means miners need more computational power and energy to find the correct hash. Over the last year, Bitcoin’s difficulty level has more than doubled, increasing by about 6% in its automatic adjustment on February 15. If this trend continues, it will push the difficulty to a new all-time high above 80 trillion for the first time, according to monitoring resource BTC.com.
Bitcoin reached $52,000 at the opening of Wall Street on February 16, as the latest U.S. macro data exceeded expectations. Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data show that Bitcoin’s price was stagnant in the last trading session of the TradFi week. Bitcoin mining rewards will halve in late April, a process known as Bitcoin halving, to combat inflation. Bitcoin programmers have implemented this halving approximately every four years into the token’s structure, with the last occurrence in May 2020. The upcoming halving will reduce Bitcoin rewards from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin, potentially leading to a lower hash rate as less efficient miners struggle to cover costs and exit, likely resulting in a decrease in Bitcoin mining difficulty as the network aims to maintain block production every 10 minutes.
Galaxy Mining analysts suggest that about 20% of the current Bitcoin hash rate could go offline after the Bitcoin halving, leaving only the most efficient mining rigs operational.
