Bitcoin mining difficulty peaks to an all-time high of 27.97 T

After a steady increase from last July’s pullback, the Bitcoin network has reached yet another all-time high in mining difficulty.

On February 18, the on-chain analysis tool CoinWarz reported that mining difficulty had reached a new high of 27.97 trillion hashes (T). It has been a new all-time high in terms of difficulty for the second time in three weeks. Previously, When hash rates were 190.71 EH/s (exahashes per second) on January 23, difficulty hit 26.7 T.

The higher the difficulty, the more miners compete to confirm a block and extract a block reward. As a result, miners have lately begun selling coins or stock in their companies to maintain their cash reserves. Marathon Digital Holdings, for example, filed on February 12 to sell $750 million in company shares.

According to data by Blockchain.com, the network’s hash rate recently has also reached a new high, with a hash rate of 211.9 EH/s. Over the last few weeks, different monitoring methods have recorded different hash rate highs. On February 13, YCharts tools as TheCoinRise reported, showed a hash rate all-time high of 248.11 EH/s.

AntPool and F2Pool have contributed the highest hash power among the recognized worldwide mining pools. According to data from Blockchain.com, Antpool has mined 96 blocks in the last four days, while F2Pool has mined 93.

Continuous increase in Bitcoin mining difficulty

Since reaching deep bottoms last July, both hash rate and mining difficulty have been on the rise, irrespective of the measuring tools used. According to CoinWarz, the hash rate had dropped to around 69 EH/s at the time, and the mining difficulty had dropped to 13.6 trillion hashes (T).

Notably, the higher hash rate indicates the network is more secure. The more hash power the network employs, the more evenly spread the work for each on-chain transaction becomes. This struggle between miners to secure the network while still making enough money is expected to continue as they assess the viability of their current operations. 

Meanwhile, the regulatory involvement has been continuously increasing with Russia being the latest to regulate the crypto mining sector.