Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Jumps 10%: What This Means

By Keshav Verma, Bitcoinist.com, 2024-08-01

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin mining difficulty has gone through an increase of more than 10% in the latest network adjustment.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Has Seen A Sharp Increase In Latest Adjustment

The “mining difficulty” is a core feature of the Bitcoin blockchain that basically exists to control the inflation of the cryptocurrency. While BTC‘s supply has a cap, it hasn't been reached yet, so the asset's supply is continuously going up.

Miners “mint” new BTC by solving blocks on the network and receiving block subsidies as compensation. These rewards always have a fixed BTC value attached to them, except for during Halving events, which take place about every four years and permanently slash them in half.

As such, the only way to increase the production rate of the token is by producing blocks faster. Miners can do this by adding extra computing power, thus increasing their total “hashrate.”

This effect, however, lasts only momentarily, thanks to the existence of the difficulty. In a universe where the BTC network didn't have the difficulty built into it, miners could simply keep on raising the hashrate to mint the asset faster, thus eventually leading the coin's value to succumb to high inflation.

Our Satoshi had the foresight to see this problem and programmed the Bitcoin blockchain so that it targets a standard block production rate of 10 minutes per block.

Automatic Difficulty Adjustments

Whenever the miners deviate from this rate, either by decreasing their hashrate or by increasing it, the BTC network changes the difficulty just enough to counteract the change in the hashrate. These adjustments take place about every two weeks and are entirely automatic.

While a constant block production rate doesn't do anything to make inflation lesser (which would make the coin scarcer), it certainly makes it predictable. The Halving event mentioned earlier is what exists to do the job of making the production rate tighter.

The latest Bitcoin network adjustment occurred just recently and significantly upped the difficulty, as the below chart shows:

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty

Hashrate Increase

This sharp difficulty adjustment to a new all-time high (ATH) would imply a rapid increase in the hashrate has also occurred, and the chart for the 7-day average hashrate confirms this.

Bitcoin Hashrate

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $64,000, down almost 3% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin Price Chart

Get Access To Marc Chaikin's "Power Gauge Report"

Enter your email address to access all the details.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

The AI Stocks Every Investor Should Have On Their Radar

Enter your email address to access all the details.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Write This Stock Ticker Down Right Now

Enter your email and phone number below to see the stock name and ticker on the next page.



By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Write This Stock Ticker Down Right Now

Enter your email below to see the stock name and ticker on the next page.



By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Write This Stock Ticker Down Right Now

Enter your email below to see the stock name and ticker on the next page.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Write This Stock Ticker Down Right Now

Enter your email address to see the name and ticker on the next page.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

How to Collect "Amazon Royalty" Payouts Before the Deadline

Thanks to a little-known IRS loophole, regular Americans can collect up to $28,544 (or more) in payouts from what is called “Amazon’s secret royalty program”…
Enter your email address to access all the details.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Elon Musk's "Project Omega"

It could soon mint new millionaires, while plunging millions of unprepared Americans into poverty. Get the stocks at the center of it all.
Enter your email address to receive the names and ticker symbols.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

The #1 Trade For 2023

Elon Musk is set to reveal his secret “Project X” that could revolutionize a $23 Trillion industry, and potentially be 1,000x bigger than EV’s. 
This Backdoor play could hand early investors a windfall of gains.
Enter your email address to receive this company’s name and ticker symbol for free.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Every Investor Should Have This $3 AI Stock On Their Radar

Enter your email address to get access to all the details.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Project An-E

Breakthrough A.I. Just Predicted What the Stock Prices of Tesla, Nvidia, and Apple Will Be 30 Days from Now…
Enter your email address for immediate access.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

Elon Musk's "Project Omega"

It could soon mint new millionaires, while plunging millions of unprepared Americans into poverty. Get the stocks at the center of it all.
Enter your email address to receive the names and ticker symbols.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)

#1 A.I. Stock Currently Trading For $3

Gain immediate access to this revolutionary $3 A.I. stock that is set to disrupt a $15 Trillion Market soar 75X.
Enter your email address to receive the name and ticker symbol for free.


By submitting your email address, you give Adaptable Investor permission to deliver the report or research you’re requesting to your email inbox. As a bonus, you will also get a free subscription to one of our carefully selected marketing partners. To learn more about our partners, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time. (Privacy Policy)