Due to the halving, the problem of Bitcoin mining has reached a new historical level
On March 14th, Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new all-time high of 83.95 trillion hashes.
A new crisis high of $73,835 was set for Bitcoin (BTC) on the same day, adding to investor sentiment ahead of April's Bitcoin halving.
Mining difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to “mine” Bitcoin by solving cryptic puzzles that increase or decrease the challenge based on the number of miners in the network.
Bitcoin hit a new high of 83.95 trillion hashes, up 5.8% from its February 29 peak of 79.35 trillion hashes. 602.14 EH/s.
As Cointelegraph recently reported, mining difficulty topped just shy of 80 trillion a month ago on February 15th, before dipping again in the February 29th update. According to predictions from BTC.com, the problem is expected to increase slightly to 84.17 trillion at the next problem check scheduled for March 27.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin price action continues at a high speed, and miners benefit. Mining bounties rose to $78.89 million on March 11, surpassing the peak bounties of $74.4 million set in October 2021. This happened after Bitcoin hit $72,953 on March 12 before recovering to $69,655.
A move on March 14 pushed BTC to $73,835 before falling to $69,813, showing a similar push to a new ATH and an immediate pullback. Since the publication of this article, BTC has recovered $70,00.
Analysts and researchers in the cryptocurrency sector have attributed Bitcoin's steady growth in Q4 2023 and the upcoming halving that is scheduled for Q1 2024 to mid-April.
The halving is the point at which the reward for mining BTC is halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The first half happened on November 28, 2014, when rewards were reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. The second happened on July 9, 2016 when the rewards were reduced from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. Finally, the last halving took place on May 11, 2020, when block rewards were reduced to 6.25 BTC.
Related: Biden Raises 30% Crypto Mining Tax in New Budget Proposal
