The difficulty of mining Bitcoin has fallen by 5.62%, marking the largest decrease since May, according to data from the Hashrate Index. It still higher than in January this year.
Miner come, miners go, the network is open
Data from Coinwarz shows that despite this recent drop, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is rising since January 2024 when it was at 70.34 trillion.
The highest recorded difficulty was 88.10 trillion between April and May, but right now, the mining difficulty stands at 79.5 trillion at block 851,050, with no changes in the past 24 hours (in the time of writing).
The next adjustment is expected on July 19, 12 days from now, as it happens in roughly every two weeks.
Over the past week, the difficulty has decreased by 5%, with a 5.11% drop in the last 30 days and a 4.37% drop in the past 90 days.
👷♂️ Today, the #Bitcoin mining difficulty was reduced by 5%, to 79.50 T.
In the current difficulty epoch, what will profitability be at different price levels? Refer to the table below.
⛏️ With a $BTC price of $54k, ASICs with Unit Power of 26 W/T or less can make a profit. We… pic.twitter.com/b5DmdmMTpo
— f2pool 🐟 (@f2pool_official) July 5, 2024
Less revenue, smaller margins
FinTech expert Same Festo suggests that this reduction is due to decreased interest in Bitcoin Runes and this year’s Bitcoin halving. Both lowered the mining rewards.
Crypto analyst James Van Straten notes that the drop in mining difficulty usually benefits large mining companies, as smaller, less efficient miners are forced out.
According to f2pool, only ASICs more efficient than 26W/T at a rate of 0.07/kWh will be profitable if Bitcoin’s price stays above $54,000.
CleanSpark exceeded its mid-year operational hashrate target of 20 EH/s by acquiring five new mining sites in Georgia, USA.
Mining isn’t complex, but need a lots of real work
Miners must produce a hash number below or equal to the current difficulty to mine a valid Bitcoin block, and the higher the difficulty, the harder it is to mine new blocks.
It’s not a complex cryptographic puzzle to solve, but a repetitive, work-intensive task. Bitcoin’s hashprice, which changes with every new block, is positively correlated with price and transaction fees but negatively correlated with mining difficulty. Currently, the hashprice is $0.04737.
NFT collector and crypto investor Anvvy.eth noted that the average cost to produce Bitcoin dropped by $11,668 between June and July.
And yes, it’s true that the drop in mining difficulty making more machines profitable, only the most efficient ASICs will remain viable, with break-even prices ranging from $39,581 to $54,424.
Lee Bratcher, President of the Texas Blockchain Council mentioned that Bitcoin miners are very flexible with their grid load and will be highly price-sensitive this summer, curtailing operations if wholesale prices hit certin levels, like it already happend in the past years.
