According to data provided by CoinWarz, Bitcoin mining difficulty has reached a new record high of 109.78 trillion.
The latest positive difficulty adjustment took place on Sunday. The widely tracked metric has increased by 1.16%.
Bitcoin mining difficulty has now grown 24% over the past 90 days. It has added 52% since the start of the year.
The next difficulty adjustment, which is expected to take place on Jan. 14, is expected to be a negative one. The key metric is currently projected to plunge by more than 8% to roughly 100.7 trillion.
It is worth noting that mining difficulty adjustments typically take place every two weeks. Satoshi’s stroke of genius ensures that new coins do not get over- or underproduced.
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The mining difficulty started at just 1 following the creation of the genesis block in early 2019. In 2013, Bitcoin mining started emerging as a full-fledged industry, with difficulty soaring to 1.5 billion in late 2013. At the peak of 2017 bull run, it reached 1.59 trillion. Following the 2021 bull run, it reached 24 trillion.
The fact that mining difficulty keeps increasing means that miners have to increase their efficiency to remain profitable.
Bitcoin’s hashrate, the metric that shows the total computational power of the network, also keeps hitting new record highs. On Dec. 15, it surpassed 800 EH/s for the first time, according to data provided by Blockchain.com.
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This shows that Bitcoin’s fundamentals remain remarkably strong. Some analysts believe that the price of the leading cryptocurrency tends to follow its hashrate based on past price action.
Due to increasing hashrate, new blocks get produced at a faster pace, meaning that mining difficulty also needs to increase.
Earlier this month, the cryptocurrency reached a new record high of $108,135, according to CoinGecko data. However, it is now trading at $93,638 after slipping by more than 13%.
