Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Tops 100T for First Time, Piling Pressure on Small Miners

The Bitcoin hashrate, on a seven-day moving average, hit a record high of 755 EH/s last week.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty hit a record high of 101.65 trillion (T) Monday, adding to pressure on smaller miners, who may not have as much cash available as their publicly traded rivals to keep their rigs going.

Mining difficulty measures how hard it is to discover new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. The network automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks. This year, difficulty has adjusted 23 times, almost 60% of the time has seen a positive adjustment which makes the process harder. The higher the difficulty, the more strain on the mining industry to produce a block.

As mining is an extremely competitive and capital-intensive industry, smaller or private companies, whose access to cash may be more constrained than their publicly traded rivals, might need to sell their bitcoin production to fund operations.

Bitcoin's mining difficulty hit an all-time high. What does it mean for BTC price?

Bitcoin's hashrate reached a new peak last week. Here's what this key metric can tell us about the state of the BTC market.

By Shaurya Malwa - Nov 28, 2023 at 8:06 p.m.

Updated Nov 28, 2023 at 8:06 p.m.

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) mining difficulty hit an all-time high of 101.65 trillion (T) Monday, adding to pressure on smaller miners, who may not have as much cash available as their publicly traded rivals to keep their rigs going.

Mining difficulty measures how hard it is to discover new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. The network automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks. This year, difficulty has adjusted 23 times, almost 60% of the time has seen a positive adjustment which makes the process harder. The higher the difficulty, the more strain on the mining industry to produce a block.

As mining is an extremely competitive and capital-intensive industry, smaller or private companies, whose access to cash may be more constrained than their publicly traded rivals, might need to sell their bitcoin production to fund operations.

Hashrate hits all-time high

Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a record high on a seven-day moving average of 755 EH/s last week. Hashrate is the computational power required to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain. At the end of October, hashrate surged almost 12% in one day, one of the biggest rises year-to-date, according to Glassnode data.

Miners are, on average, spending 100% of the total mined supply. In October, there was a brief period of miners retaining a portion of their bitcoin, adding to treasury reserves after a massive depletion in August and September.

In this current epoch, miners are mining, on average, 450 bitcoin a day. If the whole lot is sold, that amounts to roughly $31.5 million of sell-side pressure.

Overall, this shows that miners are currently in a relatively healthy spot. The less they spend on the mined supply, the less sell-side pressure occurs.

Bitcoin price stalls at $67.5K as traders anticipate next Federal Reserve meeting

Bitcoin (BTC) price action stalled in a tight range Monday morning in Asia after hitting a record high the previous week.

By Shaurya Malwa - Nov 28, 2023 at 7:14 p.m.

Updated Nov 28, 2023 at 7:14 p.m.

Bitcoin (BTC) price stalled at $67,420 at press time Monday after hitting a record high the previous week. Markets are now pricing in the next Federal Reserve meeting, while key on-chain metrics show that miners are selling almost all of their bitcoin production.

BTC/USD hit a new peak of $68,660 on the Bitstamp exchange on Thanksgiving Day, as reported by CoinDesk 23 TV. The price fell sharply after hitting the new high, dropping to lows of $66,160 on major spot exchanges.

After the Thanksgiving price action, BTC/USD began to consolidate in a tighter range. The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart showed a bearish divergence from the highs, which could indicate that bullish momentum is slowing down. If the price continues to consolidate, a breakout either above the Thanksgiving highs or below the recent lows could determine the next leg of the trend.

On lower time frames, a bullish setup formed on the four-hour chart, as the price broke out of a descending triangle pattern (white) and hit resistance at the downtrend line (red). A breakout from this level could lead