Last April’s halving didn’t leave Bitcoin miners unscathed. Despite an improvement in the BTC price, small miners were the most affected, struggling to stay afloat. The network difficulty, already on the rise, increased significantly again, making the creation of new blocks more expensive and complex. In this context, let’s look at the impacts and strategies adopted by miners to adapt to this new situation.
Increasing and historic difficulty for Bitcoin miners
As in March, the difficulty of the Bitcoin network jumped by more than 10.5% by August 1, 2024marking a new historical record. This increase in difficulty occurs after three months of declinea period during which the computing power needed to confirm transactions had declined.
- New record difficulty: 90.66 trillion;
- 14% increase on July 31, 2024.
This increase in difficulty requires increased pressure on miners' operational costsBitfarms, for example, saw its monthly revenue increase in July thanks to infrastructure upgrades.
However, This new difficulty could reduce these gains in the short term. Knowing that the maintaining network security against external attacks This increase goes through, but it also increases the burden on miners.
Miners' Strategy to Face Crypto Network Challenges
Despite these challenges, Bitcoin network hashrate remains stable for nearly six months at 630 exahashes per second, another crucial indicator of network security.
Faced with rising costs, miners are choosing to keep their rewards in BTChoping to sell at a higher price in the near future.
Marathon, for example, currently holds 18,536 Bitcoins, worth over $1 billion, up 48% from its 2023 holdings.
” Market dynamics must be taken into account ” says Salman Khan, Marathon's CFO. Short-term fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin greatly influence miners' selling decisions.
The increasing difficulty of the Bitcoin network poses significant challenges for miners, but optimism persists thanks to adaptive strategies and the potential rise of AI.
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