Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits All-Time High Ahead of Halving Event

Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new all-time high late Wednesday, rising 3.9% to 86.39 trillion in the final adjustment before the upcoming halving event on April 20. This adjustment, at block height 838,656, indicates that miners are increasing their hash rate in preparation for the block subsidy rewards dropping from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC next week.

The difficulty adjustment measures how hard it is to mine a new block relative to the easiest it can ever be, ensuring that a new block is found every 10 minutes on average. The higher the difficulty, the more computational power and energy a miner needs to find the right hash for the next block.

Bitcoin’s hash rate, which measures the total computational power dedicated to the network by miners, reached a new seven-day moving average all-time high of 629.75 EH/s ahead of the difficulty adjustment. Both mining difficulty and hash rate have been trending up since the beginning of the year, with difficulty increasing by 20% and total hash rate gaining 24% during the period.

As the halving event approaches, Bitcoin’s hash price fell to $0.11/TH/s following the difficulty adjustment and is expected to halve immediately after the halving. The halving event, scheduled to occur around 4 a.m. UTC on April 20, will reduce the block subsidy reward for miners by 50%.

Historically, Bitcoin halvings have been associated with significant fluctuations in the cryptocurrency’s price, often preceding substantial bull runs in the market. Bitcoin is currently trading at $70,647, up 67% year-to-date.

The upcoming halving event will mark the fourth in Bitcoin’s history, with the final halving expected to occur around the year 2140. After this, miners will only earn from transaction fees. Stay tuned for more updates on this evolving story.