Ahead Of The Halving, The Difficulty Of Mining Bitcoin Has Reached A Record High

The Bitcoin bull run of 2023/2024 persists as prices soar to unprecedented heights and block rewards reach new peaks.

Source: www.bankrate.com

On March 14, Bitcoin mining difficulty hit a historic peak of 83.95 trillion hashes, coinciding with a record-breaking Bitcoin price of $73,835. This surge in price occurred amidst growing investor optimism ahead of the April Bitcoin halving. Mining difficulty serves as a gauge of the level of complexity involved in "mining" Bitcoin, which entails solving cryptographic puzzles. The difficulty adjusts based on the number of miners active on the network. The new difficulty high of 83.95T hashes reflects a 5.8% increase from the previous measurement of 79.35T, recorded on February 29. This was achieved at a rate of 613.94 exahashes per second (EH/s), up by 1.96% compared to the previous cycle's 602.14 EH/s.

Recent reports indicate that mining difficulty exceeded 80T around February 15, only to dip again by the February 29 update. Projections from BTC.com suggest a slight increase in difficulty to 84.17T at the next check on March 27. Regarding Bitcoin's price action, the upward momentum persists, benefiting miners significantly. On March 11, mining rewards surged to $78.89 million, surpassing the previous high of $74.4 million set in October 2021.This spike coincided with Bitcoin reaching $72,953 on March 12 before retracing back to $69,655.

On March 14, a similar pattern emerged with Bitcoin surging to a new all-time high, hitting $73,835, before retracting to $69,813. At the time of this article, BTC has recovered to $70,000.Analysts and experts across the cryptocurrency industry have linked Bitcoin's consistent growth during Q4 2023 and extending into Q1 2024 to the forthcoming halving event scheduled for mid-April.

The halving marks a significant period during which the block reward for mining BTC is reduced by half, from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This mechanism is designed to control the supply of Bitcoin and maintain its scarcity over time. The first halving occurred on Nov. 28, 2014, reducing rewards from 50 to 25 BTC. The second halving took place on July 9, 2016, cutting rewards from 25 to 12.5 BTC. Finally, the most recent halving occurred on May 11, 2020, reducing block rewards to 6.25 BTC.

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