According to CryptoPotato, the Bitcoin hash rate exhibited consistent growth throughout Q3, reaching a milestone of more than 400 EH/s this month, up from 250 EH/s at the start of 2023. Bitcoin mining difficulty also set a new all-time high of 57.11 T. A Coin Metrics report suggests that savvy Bitcoin miners continue to add operational hash rate, with the mining landscape set to become more complicated in 2024.

As the next halving event approaches within a year, miners in the United States are ramping up production efforts and managing their mining fleets in anticipation of the upcoming reduction in block rewards in the spring. American miners are increasingly deploying modern machinery, contributing to the ongoing enhancement of overall network efficiency. The stakes for the mining industry will be elevated even further in the upcoming year with the anticipated launch of the state-of-the-art Antimer S21, which is slated to commence shipping in the first and second quarters of 2024.

However, the concentration of hash rate in the hands of a few massive mining pools remains a major concern for the community. Foundry and Antpool have collectively controlled over 50% of Bitcoin's hash rate since January 2023, posing an ever-greater centralization risk. Although Foundry's dominance has slightly diminished from its peak of 34% in February to 29%, Antpool is steadily advancing, increasing its share by 5% during the same period, now reaching 23%. F2Pool, the third-largest mining pool with a 13% share, has also prompted a fresh wave of scrutiny in terms of the role of mining pools and their impact on transaction settlement, with the lack of transparency regarding policies and procedures fueling a growing sense of distrust towards mining pools.