Bitcoin's mining difficulty jumped 14.95% in its adjustment this week, reaching 15.78 trillion and marking the biggest change in difficulty since early 2018. The shift brings the network's difficulty
Bitcoin's mining difficulty jumped 14.95% in its adjustment this week, reaching 15.78 trillion and marking the biggest change in difficulty since early 2018. The shift brings the network's difficulty to its fourth-highest level since mining began.
The increase comes about a month after Bitcoin's third halving cut block rewards from 12.5 to 6.25 coins. When their earnings halved, miners switched off equipment, sending the hash rate down. The network's last two difficulty adjustments fell. Now that trend has reversed.
Hash rate climbed about 8% in the past seven days, rising from 98 terahashes per second to 113 exahashes per second. Operators restarted older mining rigs, and Chinese chipmakers released new ASIC machines that deliver more computing power.
The last time difficulty jumped this significantly was January 2018, when it climbed 16.84%, following Bitcoin's all-time high in December 2017. The current jump doesn't match that scale, but 15.78T puts the network close to the 16T level it hit twice this year: in March and early May, before the May 11 halving.
The higher difficulty squeezes margins for miners. With 1 terahash of computing power, a miner earns about 0.000008 bitcoin per day, worth around $0.08. As the profitability threshold rises, operators running older, less efficient rigs face a choice: upgrade or shut down. Bitmain's Antminer S19 and similar newer machines offer better returns. Miners with dated equipment may not survive the next cycle if prices don't rise.
FTX began offering futures contracts that let traders bet on Bitcoin difficulty moving higher or lower. The platform's Q3 and Q4 contracts are priced at $17.3, suggesting traders expect hash rate and difficulty to climb through the next two quarters.
