BITCOIN MINING DIFFICULTY ADJUSTMENT

Yet another all-time high — Bitcoin mining hashrate and difficulty grow to a new maximum

Analyzing Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment and mining profitability

The latest difficulty adjustment, effective at block height 774,144, increased mining difficulty by 4.68%. In this overview, we’ll analyze the effects on mining and profitability.

Bitcoin’s total hashrate

In the Bitcoin mining industry, it’s normal to see hashrate following price.

This time wasn’t the exception. With Bitcoin continuing its climb — albeit at a slower pace — miners had all the more reasons to add hashrate to the network, seeking to capitalize on the higher profitability.

This also coincides with demand for electricity decreasing in the United States, as the weather conditions improved over the last few weeks.

These factors have led to hashrate to average 281.67 EH/s at the time of the adjustment — a new all-time high, making it two in a row.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty

Logically, difficulty has also crossed its previous all-time high to reach a new maximum.

This time, difficulty jumped 4.68%, reaching 39.35T and chaining two consecutive increases in a row — something that didn’t happen since October 2022.

This proves, once again, that miner capitulation never really happened. Instead, miners were temporarily disconnecting due to low profitability, and have been waiting on the sidelines to jump back in as soon as their profit margins thickened.

Hashprice, or mining revenue per TH/s

As expected, mining revenue underwent a slight decrease after the adjustment.

The increase in difficulty timed perfectly with Bitcoin’s price correction. Therefore, the two heaviest factors in determining hashprice acted to decrease it to $0.073 per TH/s.

This constitutes a 5.19% drop from $0.077 — the hashrpice immediately before the adjustment — but also a 2.8% jump from $0.071 — that after the previous change.

The difficulty adjustment in numbers

• Difficulty adjustment block height: 774,144
• Date of the adjustment: 01/29/2023
• Average hashrate at the time of the adjustment: 281.67 EH/s
• Previous difficulty: 37.59T
• Current difficulty: 39.35T
• Difficulty change: +4.68%
• Miner revenue per TH/s (hashprice) after adjustment: $0.073