Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Mining difficulty on the network rose by 8.9% today while the hash rate is more than 130 EH/s.
The price of Bitcoin has reached a two-year high of more than $19,000 and fallen below $17,000 more than once in the span of a week as mining difficulty continues to rise.
According to on-chain analytics provider Glassnode, Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty increased by 8.9% today, putting the metric within 5% of its all-time high value set last month.
#Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 8.9% today.It is now only 4.4% below its ATH.Chart: https://t.co/qtmuDmTfGS pic.twitter.com/1eX63yBAgc
â glassnode (@glassnode) November 29, 2020
A rise in mining difficulty marked the start of bull cycles in 2013 and 2016, though it remains to be seen whether the coinâs recent rally to within 3% of its ATH price is long-term bullish. The price of Bitcoin fell by 11% last week as many whales moved some of their holdings to exchanges and is $18,122 at the time of publication.
Greater mining difficulty can mean an increase fees for users and the time required to generate a block in addition to increasing the number of unmined transactions in Bitcoinâs mempool. According to estimates from Earn.com, the optimal BTC transaction fee is currently 14,272 satoshis, or roughly $2.60.
The Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has also seen record highs recently. Glassnode reported mining difficulty for the network was at a two-year high on Friday following the price of the token falling from more than $600 on Nov. 23 to $513 in three days.Â
The network hash rate â an indication as to how much computing power is being dedicated to validating Bitcoin transactions â plunged following the metric and mining difficulty reaching an ATH in October. Data from Blockchain.com shows the metric fell more than 27% between Oct. 17 and Nov. 2, from 146.5 EH/s to 106.6 EH/s. Bitcoinâs hashrate is currently 130.15 EH/s, according to BTC.com.
At the time of publication, the price of Bitcoin is staying above $18,000, having risen 1.9% in the last 24 hours.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.