Bitcoin mining difficulty has been on the rise as the network has gained more popularity. This is a far cry from what was expected after China, which was known as the mining capital of the world at that point, had laid a blanket ban on crypto mining. Bitcoin miners had been able to successfully set up in other regions of the world and mining activities have ramped up since then.
This time around, it comes along with the growth of blocks mined per hour which has smashed all expectations. Not only has the mining difficulty been affected by this but its effects are being felt all around the mining industry.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty At New ATH?
Block production rates have risen higher than anticipated to beat the previous target of 6 blocks mined per hour. This number now stands at 6.2 blocks mined in an hour. This increase in block production has led to an increase in mining difficulty which has pushed it towards new all-time highs. Going forward, there is expected to be a 4-5% difficulty adjustment in mining difficulty.
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If this happens, it will easily send the bitcoin mining difficulty towards a new all-time high. It continues to follow the growing trend that began in August of 2021 after the China ban had gone into effect. It would beat all expectations given that the China ban had seen the bitcoin hash rate crash 50% last year.
BTC hash rate on the rise | Source: Arcane Research
Miners Enjoy More Profitability
The mining difficulty has not been the only thing affected by the increased block production rate. Other things like daily miner revenues have been on the rise. Bitcoin mines saw a 6.86% change in the last week ending on March 28th. This represents more than a $2 million increase over a seven-day period. Also important to note that the same daily revenues had been up 7% in the previous week.
BTC declines to $45,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Daily transaction volumes also recorded an uptick in the same time period. It grew by a total of 11% touching $6.4 billion in transaction volume per day. It was a result of a recorded growth in the average transaction volume given that transaction volumes per day had only grown 1.5%. The average transaction volume was up 9% in the seven days this data was collated.
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Transaction fees saw the highest growth for the week. Given that there is now more demand for block space, transaction fees had been on a steady climb since then. Daily transaction fees grew 20% and are now sitting at $460,000 per day.
Featured image from Investopedia, chart from TradingView.com