Charted: Bitcoin difficulty just surged
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Bitcoin difficulty just shot up to its highest level ever, after about two months of cooling.
Why it matters: It's going to be even harder for bitcoin miners to make money without a significant appreciation in bitcoin price.
How it works: Difficulty is a measure of how hard it is for a miner to win a block. The network adjusts it based on how many participants there are.
Catch up fast: The Bitcoin halving took place in April, cutting in half the block reward won by a miner that wins the contest to validate and add transactions to Bitcoin's ledger.
- What's expected: Some miners give up and sell their machines, which seemed to happen through May and June (see the dip in the chart above).
By the numbers: Hashprice, the value of putting computers on the network, has plunged, from an April 2024 high of $117, to a current low of around $47.
- Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital, publicly traded miners, posted losses for the last quarter.
Yes, but: The big miners aren't selling coins.
