Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Rises 15% to 144.4T

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty at Record Levels

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose to 144.4 trillion, up about 15% on February 20 according to CoinWarz data. This increase reversed the 11% drop at the beginning of the month; that drop was recorded as the sharpest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban and was caused by severe winter storms in the US reducing hash rate. Major mining pools like Foundry USA saw their hash rate drop from 400 EH/s to 198 EH/s, but recovered after the storm.

Bitcoin Difficulty Chart. Source: CoinWarz

Hash rate measures the total computational power securing the network, while difficulty is adjusted every 2,016 blocks to keep block production time at 10 minutes. High difficulty BTC detailed analysis enhances the network’s security, but requires miners to expend more effort to win block rewards. US miners halted operations during the January storm through demand response programs and flexible power contracts, selling electricity back to the grid for revenue. LM Funding America earned more than a quarter of its typical three-month revenue in a single weekend during Winter Storm Fern. Canaan Inc. also participated in similar curtailments. After the China ban, the US hosts more than a third of the global BTC hash rate; states like Texas and Georgia are at the forefront.

Top Bitcoin mining stocks by market cap. Source: Bitcoinminingstock.io

BTC Network Security and Latest News

Despite increasing Google searches for Bitcoin’s value going to zero, institutional buyers continue to accumulate BTC. According to BIP-360 co-author Ethan Heilman, BTC’s transition to post-quantum security will take 7 years; the difficulty increase is already strengthening the network. This demonstrates network resilience despite macro uncertainties.

BTC Technical Outlook and Price Analysis

BTC price $67,831 (+1.43%), RSI 34.67 (oversold). Downtrend, EMA20: $71,225. Supports: S1 $65,111 (strong), S2 $67,004. Resistances: R1 $69,350, R2 $71,675. Detailed analysis recommended for BTC futures detailed analysis.

• Trend: Bearish Supertrend
• Strong Support: S1 (79/100)