Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment implies return of the miners

The Bitcoin network saw one of its biggest adjustments in mining difficulty on 21 April. According to data provided by Blockin, the difficulty adjusted upwards by 8.45%, pushing the difficult to 15.96 T. The adjustment took place at block height 626,976.

Source: Blockin

Increasing mining difficulty implied that more miners are now competing among themselves. The higher the number of miners in the system, the higher the hashrate and thus, higher the mining difficulty on the network. It must be noted, however, that the present adjustment followed the difficulty drop of almost 16% in March, one of the largest drops in Bitcoin’s history after mining became unprofitable.

On 8 April, BTC difficulty was adjusted again, this time upwards by 5.77% to 14.72 T.With the last two difficulty adjustments showing an upturn, it can be inferred that miners have been coming back to the network in large numbers. However, there is another difficulty adjustment coming right before the halving scheduled for next month.

According to the data provider, another adjustment will be taking place by 5 May, an adjustment that will provide an 8.50% boost to the difficulty, taking it to 17.31 T. Following the next difficulty adjustment, an increase in difficulty and hashrate may result in a block mining times falling even further.

The average time taken to mine a single block was around 10 minutes; however, due to fewer miners, the time had increased. With the next adjustment, the BTC difficulty and hashrate may reach the levels before the crash and clarify the state of the Bitcoin halving. However, these values may change with the changing hashrate on the Bitcoin network.

The impact of the mining adjustment has not been felt in the spot market, however, as Bitcoin, at the time of writing, was still fighting the $7k resistance. It managed to stay above $7k for just four days before the selling pressure increased and the value fell back under $7k. However, may traders believe that an increased hashrate may have a positive impact on the price, with these traders speculating that this will be realized only in time.