Bitcoin mining difficulty

On Wednesday, Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty has just jumped once again, for the third time in a row, forming a new increase streak, as previously discussed.

Bitcoin mining difficulty, or the measure of how hard it is to compete for mining rewards, jumped by 13.24%, reaching 17.6 T. This is the highest increase since May this year, and a significant jump from the 15.56 T, reached during the previous adjustment two weeks ago. It's also notable when compared to the 13.67 T level it had seen during the last drop, in mid-July.

The number it hit today brought it back to the November 2020 level - slowly moving towards the all-time high of 25 T seen this past May, though still quite far from it.

This is now the third jump in a row, following the second longest drop streak in the network's history.

All this comes with the rise of BTC's price, which had recently surpassed USD 50,000 again, before correcting lower.

Per BitInfoCharts.com, hashrate, or the computational power of the network, continues increasing. The 7-day moving average hashrate on July 24 was up 50.4% since the July low. It's also up 11.7% since the previous adjustment.

Meanwhile, though seeing some minor increases over the past two weeks, bitcoin mining profitability has remained the same since the previous difficulty adjustment.