This bitcoin mining difficulty reached a up-to-date record high, which squeezed profit margins. At 92.67 trillion, the difficulty index surpassed the previous record high of 90.67 trillion set in July of this year.

This 3.6% boost reflects the increased competitiveness resulting from the record hash rate values. It highlights how resilient and secure the network is becoming as Bitcoin mining requires more computing power.

Source: CoinWarz

Miners are liquidating their Bitcoin holdings

Interestingly, miners have sold almost 30,000 Bitcoins, worth about $1.71 billion, since September 8. This significant sell-off indicates possible liquidity issues or concerns about future price volatility among miners.

The added difficulty comes at a arduous time for miners who are still adjusting to the effects of the April halving, a planned reduction in mining rewards that has since halved possible profits, helping to explain the roughly 10% drop in bitcoin’s price.

Source: CoinWarz

The miner himself secures the block reward

Despite the difficulties, one miner achieved a block reward of around $180,000. This remarkable success highlights how much individual miners can still produce despite the increasing challenges.

NEWS: Only #Bitcoin miner wins $180k (3,169) $BTC) reward after successfully mining block 860749. photo: twitter.com/KrBDOw99ue

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) September 11, 2024

The rising difficulty hasn’t discouraged miners from improving their operations. In September, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a record high, measuring the overall computing power that sustains the network. This means miners are betting on a huge price boost in the near future.

Impact on listed mining companies

This increasing complexity of mining increased competition and squeezed profit margins for publicly traded bitcoin miners. These headwinds caused major mining corporations to see significant declines in stock prices and production rates.

Shares of Marathon Digital Inc. are down 31% this year, while Riot Platform is down 54%. The stock prices of many popular mining stocks have reflected the overall difficulties of the cryptocurrency mining industry.

Effects on Bitcoin price are still unknown, with possible implications for the long-term security of the network, as well as ephemeral price fluctuations. While some fear that the significant amount of BTC being sold by miners could cause selling pressure and a possible drop in the price of Bitcoin, others see the boost in mining difficulty as a good indicator of the security of the network and investor confidence.

Therefore, every investor should keep an eye on these events to aid them make sharp financial strategy choices. Reflecting the uncertainty surrounding the current market conditions, the bullishness of the Bitcoin community also dropped to 21% of the 51,341 respondents surveyed.

Featured image from Bankless, chart from TradingView