Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 6% in Biggest Drop Since Bear Market Lows
Mining difficulty fell 5.7% on Thursday in the largest negative adjustment in almost 18 months.
The difficulty adjustment occurred at a block height of 842.688, dropping to 83.1 trillion, according to Bitbo data.
It marks the largest negative adjustment since the bear market lows, when difficulty fell 7% on December 6, 2022 and bitcoin was trading at around $17,000.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is a relative measure of how difficult it is to mine a new block compared to how easy it can be. It automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks (approximately two weeks) to ensure that, on average, a new block is found every 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners are actively mining.
When the number of miners increases, the difficulty of mining bitcoins increases. Conversely, if there is a decrease in the number of miners competing to find new blocks, the protocol reduces the difficulty of mining, making it easier for the remaining miners to discover blocks.
The negative difficulty adjustment follows a 10% drop in the network's hash rate since the last difficulty adjustment on April 24, from a seven-day moving average of 639.58 EH/s to 578.74 EH/s s as of yesterday, according to The Block's data dashboard. Before the adjustment, average block times were 10 minutes and 36 seconds.
