Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin experienced a 14.95% increase in network difficulty earlier this week and surprised investors with a development not seen since 2018. Although BTC, which experienced a successive network drop after Bitcoin Halving, is expected to experience such an increase, no one hoped it would be 15%.
Bitcoin Miners in Difficulty
This seems to have left miners in a difficult situation in the Bitcoin mining industry, where the stones started to settle again. Karim Helmy, one of the Coinmetrics experts, stressed that miners using Antminer S9A will have to turn off the device with the new difficulty increase. According to Helmy, not only the Antminer S9A, but the miner who used many equivalent devices now began to seriously hurt. Of course, whether miners are making losses or gains depends on electricity charges. Experts calculate according to an average electricity fee. Although devices such as M30, S18 and A11 have returned to the network before the difficulty increase, they may have been turned off again after the difficulty increase. This can bring a serious drop in hashrate and blockage in the network in the coming days. Still, the Bitcoin network is predicted to adjust itself accordingly, and we may see a drop in difficulty in the coming weeks.
