BTC mining difficulty drops by 7,32%

The average hashrate of the network is 256,31 EH/s

06.12.2022 - 09:30

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2 min

What’s new? On December 6, bitcoin mining difficulty dropped by 7,32% to 34,24 T, according to BTC.com. This is the largest downward adjustment since July 2022. At that time, the network’s difficulty dropped by 5,01% to 27,69 T. The network’s average hashrate is 256,31 EH/s. As of 08:50 UTC, BTC is trading at $17 020, down by 1,96% in 24 hours, according to Binance.

BTC.com’s data

Hashrate is the total computational power in the bitcoin network. The mining difficulty determines the amount of computing power it takes to find a new block in the blockchain. The parameter changes every 2016 blocks, or about once every two weeks. This ensures that the time it takes to find a block is around 10 minutes.

Situation with mining. Experts at Glassnode said that the mining industry is in a state of extreme stress. This is due to the fall in cryptocurrency quotes, the rising cost of electricity, and the debts of large companies. For example, after the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, mining firms owe lenders more than $4 billion and are forced to give hundreds of thousands of devices provided as collateral.

The #Bitcoin protocol has just decreased mining difficulty by -7.3%, the largest downwards adjustment since July 2021.Given depressed coin prices, rising energy costs, and debt burdens, the mining industry is under under extreme stress.Live Dashboard: https://t.co/64jyX7mRzj pic.twitter.com/USBtvhQtZt — glassnode (@glassnode) December 6, 2022

In October, the largest mining company, Core Scientific, warned of possible bankruptcy by suspending payments to creditors. On November 7, WSJ reporters reported that mining companies began selling off rigs en masse to cover losses from the fall in the digital asset market.

On November 18, Iris Energy shut down the equipment used as collateral for a $107,8 million loan. Representatives of the firm noted that the units “produce insufficient cash flow to service their respective debt financing obligations.”

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