Near-All-Time High Difficulty of Bitcoin Mining, Falling Profitability

Bitcoin’s (BTC) mining difficulty surged today to its highest level since January, eroding miners’ profit margins as their firms’ profitability drops.

The index rose 9.26% to 30.98 T, nearing its May record high of 31.25 T. The difficulty level changes every two weeks to ensure 10 minutes between blocks. It’s changed 9 minutes recently.

Since the latest difficulty adjustment on August 18, mining profitability has plummeted by almost 15% as BTC’s price has fallen. In the same time range, Bitcoin’s hash rate increased.

Miners increased their net BTC stock last week. As of 08:19 UTC, BTC is trading at USD 20,283, down 1% for the day and 6% for the week.