Bitcoin Hashrate Surges Amidst Market Rebound: An 11.9% Difficulty Adjustment on the Horizon
Bitcoin's hashrate has experienced a significant surge, causing a notable acceleration in the average block production interval. Halfway through the current difficulty epoch, the hashrate increase has accelerated the average block production interval to approximately 8 minutes and 56 seconds, which is 11.9% faster than the intended 10-minute-per-block interval.
Following a strong market rebound from $55,000 that began in mid-July, bitcoin’s seven-day moving average hashrate has climbed from a local low of 558 EH/s to an all-time high of 662 EH/s. This increase of 100 EH/s within a month is the equivalent of integrating 500,000 units of Bitmain’s Antminer S21 into the network.
Anticipated Difficulty Adjustment
Although the next difficulty retargeting is still a few days away, the current block production interval suggests the next adjustment could result in a significant difficulty increase by over 11%. This would set a new record above 90 trillion for the first time and mark the single largest adjustment since October 2022.
Influence of Publicly Traded Bitcoin Mining Companies
Publicly traded bitcoin mining companies have played a crucial role in driving the hashrate increase. Recently, these companies began integrating batches of newly arrived next-generation ASIC miners from pre-orders placed since Q3 last year.
Research from TheMinerMag indicates that 15 public mining companies installed an additional 15 EH/s of hashrate in June compared to May. Consequently, the combined market share for bitcoin production by mining public companies returned to 21.4% in June, the highest since December. This trend of consolidation seems to be continuing in July. For example, Marathon’s MARA Pool mined 170 bitcoin blocks with an average of 7.08 blocks per day, a 35% increase from June.
Expansion Plans of Public Miners
Public miners are not showing signs of slowing down. Over the past week alone, several expansion plans have been announced:
HIVE has announced a 100 MW expansion in Paraguay.
UAE’s Phoenix Group is increasing its operations in the U.S. with a 25 MW expansion in South Carolina.
Riot has acquired Block Mining to expand 60 MW in Kentucky, with plans to scale up to 110 MW this year.
