Bitcoin miners are bracing themselves for another difficulty adjustment this week. Despite already being at a record high, the estimated difficulty level of mining new Bitcoins is expected to increase even further from 43.05 T to 44.46 T. This rise follows similar increases in the hash rate on the Bitcoin network—the amount of computer power dedicated to Bitcoin global mining, with the network’s hash rate currently reaching an all-time high of 385 EH/s. Such a growth in the hash rate is seen as a sign of network adoption and improves the Bitcoin network’s security and resilience to various forms of attacks. However, the increase in difficulty is expected to further squeeze the margins of mining firms already struggling after a yearlong bear market, notably publicly listed Bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain, which suffered a loss of more than half a billion dollars in 2022.
