Bitcoin mining faces challenges as difficulty reaches new peak
Bitcoin's (CRYPTO:BTC) mining difficulty has reached an all-time high, creating new hurdles for miners as revenue continues to decline.
On September 10, the difficulty increased by 3.58%, pushing the network's difficulty level to 92.67 trillion.
This spike follows a surge in Bitcoin's overall hashrate, which recently peaked at 693 exahashes per second (EH/s) before settling down to 680 EH/s by Wednesday morning.
The increased difficulty means that it is now 3.58% more challenging to mine a new Bitcoin block until September 24, 2024.
This rise from the previous level of 89.47 trillion to the current peak of 92.67 trillion adds to the pressures miners are already facing.
With Bitcoin's hashrate fluctuating around these record highs, the environment is becoming more competitive for mining operations.
Mining revenue has also suffered significantly, with the hashprice, or the estimated daily value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s), hovering at just $39.18.
This is compounded by the fact that onchain transaction fees are relatively low, contributing only 1.7% of miners' revenue over the past 24 hours.
Currently, the fee rate for a high-priority transaction stands at six satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), amounting to $0.47 for processing a transaction on the blockchain.
The dual challenges of rising difficulty and low revenue are putting substantial financial strain on miners.
To stay competitive in this challenging environment, many mining operators will need to reconsider their strategies.
Options may include investing in more efficient mining technology, reducing operational costs, or even diversifying their businesses into other sectors, such as artificial intelligence (AI) work, to offset losses.
At the time of reporting, the Bitcoin (BTC) price was $58,298.67.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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