Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops as Electricity Costs Rise

As a result of the next recalculation, the complexity of bitcoin mining decreased by 0.35% to 27.45 million (T). The positive dynamics observed since November 2021 was interrupted in early March.

Data: BTC.com.

Difficulty hit an all-time high of 29.97T in February. On March 3rd, it dropped 1.5% to 27.55M (T).

What is the hashrate and difficulty of cryptocurrency mining?

Compass Mining CEO Whitt Gibbs, in an interview with CoinDesk, noted that the weakening dynamics can be attributed to rising electricity costs, which forced some miners to turn off the equipment. In his opinion, this process will continue in the near future.

Yaran Mellerud from Arcane Research also drew attention to the measures taken by the Kazakh government to combat illegal mining. According to his calculations, the negative effect on the hash rate was about 1.5%. This is one reason why the amount of computing power (217.5 EH/s) remains below the record 248.1 EH/s reached in February.

Data: BTC.com.

In 2021, the hash rate began to fall in May amid problems with the power supply of miners in Sichuan. The contraction continued with the exodus of industry players from China due to the ban. Complexity correlated with processing power was also reduced. According to the results of one of the recalculations in July, the fall was a record 27.94%.

Both indicators began to recover only closer to August. At the same time, the United States became the leader in terms of the share in the bitcoin hash rate for the first time.

Recall that in February, the income of miners of the first cryptocurrency decreased by 13% compared to the previous month, barely exceeding $1 billion.

Earlier, Arcane Research analysts predicted an increase in the market share of American miners.

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