Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Skyrockets by 7.33%, Setting New Record for 2024

On Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, the Bitcoin network witnessed a significant milestone as its mining complexity metric surged by 7.33% at block height 828,576. This marked the most substantial increase in difficulty for the year thus far. The current level of difficulty stands at 75.50 trillion, reaffirming its status as the most challenging period for bitcoin mining to date.

Bitcoin’s 7.33% Mining Difficulty Spike Marks 2024 Record

Bitcoin (BTC) mining has recently become a far more challenging endeavor, with the difficulty metric rising by an impressive 7.33%, marking the most significant increase in 2024. This notable rise comes on the heels of a 3.90% decrease observed on Jan. 20. 2024 has witnessed a total of two increases and one reduction in mining difficulty thus far. Additionally, we are now counting down to the fourth halving event, which is less than 11,500 blocks away and will lead to a halving of BTC mining rewards.

2024’s three difficulty retargets.

The 7.33% rise in difficulty marks a historic ascent to an all-time peak of 75.50 trillion. In essence, this figure represents the threshold at which a block’s hash must reside to be deemed valid. With the difficulty now standing at 75.50 trillion, it implies that the hash of an acceptable block must be equal to or lower than an exceptionally diminutive target value within the extensive spectrum of possible hash values. The smaller this target becomes, the less probable it is for a random hash guess to fall below it, thereby intensifying the challenge of discovering a valid block.

Currently, the collective hashrate is cruising steadily at 536 exahash per second (EH/s), as indicated by seven-day simple moving average (SMA) data from Luxor’s web portal hashrateindex.com. This figure of 536 EH/s trails slightly behind the all-time peak of 566 EH/s reached on Jan. 29, 2024.

Examining three-day block discovery metrics unveils the dominance of two pools over Bitcoin’s hashrate, collectively accounting for over 60% of the total. Foundry USA leads the charge with a commanding 31.94%, boasting 173.53 EH/s, while Antpool closely follows with 159.17 EH/s, constituting 29.30% of the overall hashrate. The next mining difficulty retarget is due to occur on Feb. 15, 2024.

What do you think about Friday’s bitcoin mining difficulty increase? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.