Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Surges 10% to New ATH as Miners Return

Bitcoin miners got crushed in 2022. What seemed like a year of sufficient capital for expansion, high energy prices, increasing competition, and a bear market knocked several mining giants off.

After the winter slumber, Bitcoin miners are back again as mining difficulty noted over a 10% surge from 34.09 trillion to 37.59 trillion, according to data compiled by BTC.com

Following the development, a leading player in the space, f2pool tweeted,

“Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 10.26%, to an ATH! In this 2-week cycle, If BTC can go up above $23,000, machines that are more efficient than 40W/T can be running with profits at the electricity of $0.08/kWh.”

• The figure that determines how difficult it is to mine a Bitcoin block comes amidst a bullish reversal in the crypto asset’s price action.
• Currently trading at $21,175, Bitcoin managed to wipe out losses from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire two months back. The next difficulty change is expected to take place in two weeks, which could see a minor decline of 0.02%, at least for now.
• Meanwhile, in just two weeks into the year, Bitcoin’s mining hash set two fresh highs even as bankrupt miner Core Scientific turned off 9,000 ASICs in December.
• This trend could potentially demonstrate hash moving from weak hands to strong hands. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s hash rate is hovering near 271.86 EH/s.
• In terms of mining pool distribution, Foundry USA commands the highest share with 35.5%, followed by AntPool with 20.9%, Binance Pool with 12.3%, and f2pool with 10.4%, among others, respectively.