The recent data revealed on 9 December that Bitcoin had experienced a decrease of 0.96% in its difficulty rating at a block height of 820,512. This drop marks the very first fall since 19th September 2023, interrupting a whole streak of 6 consecutive hikes.
Subsequently, Bitcoin’s overall hash rate has displayed a downward trajectory over the past six days.
Bitcoin Hashrate Declines Amidst First Difficulty Decrease Since Early Fall:
The hash rate started to decline a few days before the recent adjustment. On 4th December 2023, the 7-day average hash rate was at 507 EH/s (exahash per second). According to the latest data obtained on 11th December 2023, the average was able to settle down at 472 exahash per second, marking a fall worth 6.9% in only three days.
Currently, the price of hash declined much before the peak was able to reach on 6th December 2023. At the time, the rate of PH/s (Peta hash per second) every day simply exceeded 111 dollars per PH/s. Right now, the 7-day average does indicate a fall of 88.41 dollars per PH/s, which amounts to a decline of more than 20%.
In the middle of this recent fall in difficulty rating as well as the downturn in hash price, BTC (Bitcoin) miners are seeking 19,135 blocks remaining, right until the next primary milestone, also referred to as halving. This particular event, anticipated to take place around 20th April 2024, will end up slashing the block reward to 3.125 BTC per block from 6.25 BTC per block.
As BTC navigates through such fluctuations in hash rate and difficulty, miners are looking at the impending halving with plenty of interest. This anticipated reduction in terms of block subsidy rewards does set a significant turning point for the whole network.
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