Bitcoin mining difficulty rises 4% a few days before halving

Bitcoin mining difficulty increased 4% over the past day, reaching a peak of 86.39 trillion hashes on April 10.

This rise is consistent with an ongoing trend seen since the beginning of the year and highlights the computational challenges miners face on major digital asset networks.

The difficulty is increasing as BTC surges above $70,000 thanks to bullish momentum fueled by spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the impending halving event.

Mining Difficulty

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is adjusted approximately every two weeks after completing 2,016 blocks. This important process evaluates whether miner activity is shortening or lengthening block discovery times.

As mining difficulty increases, miners must allocate more computing power to mine blocks. This spike indicates an increase in computational workload due to more miners participating in the network. Additionally, increasing difficulty makes the blockchain more powerful and amplifies the energy required to launch network attacks.

At the same time, hash rate index data shows that the collective hash rate of the Bitcoin network has been steadily rising, averaging 639 exahashes per second (EH/s) compared to the 7-day simple moving average.

Despite the continued trend of rising hash rates, it is worth noting that Bitcoin’s hash price – the reward received per hash for computing effort – experienced a significant surge in the first quarter. This surge can be attributed to the Bitcoin price surge of 67.0% during the quarter, far outpacing the hashrate growth.

half life event

Bitcoin’s upcoming halving, scheduled for around April 20, will reduce BTC’s block reward by 50%, reducing it to 3.125 BTC.

According to analysts at NYDIG, this event is more important for miners than the prices of major digital assets. They argue that the reduction in supply is relatively small compared to the trading volume of the asset and the demand for spot ETFs.

However, historical data shows that although halvings do not trigger immediate price spikes, they play a significant role in shaping Bitcoin’s price cycle. Therefore, the current positive price performance ahead of the halving gives investors grounds for optimism about Bitcoin’s future potential.

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 4% just a few days before the halving event first appeared on CryptoSlate.