Bitcoin mining difficulty reaches new historical high as halving looms

Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new historical high of 83.95 trillion hashes on March 14. 

The new difficulty high was set on the same day as a new all-time-high Bitcoin BTCUSD price of $73,835 amid increased investor sentiment ahead of the April Bitcoin halving.

Mining difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to “mine” Bitcoin by solving cryptographic puzzles that increase or decrease in challenge based on the number of miners on the network.

Bitcoin reached the new difficulty high of 83.95 trillion hashes, up 5.8% from the previous measurement of 79.35 trillion, on Feb. 29. It was set at a rate of 613.94 exahashes per second (EH/s), up 1.96% over last cycle’s 602.14 EH/s.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, mining difficulty surpassed 80 trillion just shy of a month ago on Feb. 15 before dipping again at the Feb. 29 update. According to projections from BTC.com, the difficulty is expected to increase slightly to 84.17 trillion at the next difficulty check set for March 27.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin price action has continued its upper momentum, and miners are benefiting. Mining rewards spiked to $78.89 million on March 11, surpassing the previous rewards high of $74.4 million set in October 2021. This occurred as Bitcoin hit $72,953 on March 12 before retreating back to $69,655.

March 14 movement shows a similar push to a new ATH followed by an immediate retreat, with the day’s rally pushing BTC to $73,835 before falling back to $69,813. As of the time of this article’s publication, BTC has regained $70,00.

Analysts and pundits throughout the cryptocurrency sector have attributed Bitcoin’s steady growth throughout Q4 2023 and extending, so far, through Q1 2024 to the upcoming halving event slated for mid-April.

The halving is a point at which the block reward for mining BTC will be halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The first halving occurred on Nov. 28, 2014, when rewards were slashed from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. The second happened on July 9, 2016, when rewards were cut from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. Finally, the last halving happened on May 11, 2020, when block rewards were cut to 6.25 BTC.

Related: Biden resurrects 30% crypto mining tax in new budget proposal