Bitcoin's difficulty and hashrate surge, miner profits decline

Despite the recent drop in Bitcoin prices, mining difficulty on the network has reached an all-time high, putting significant pressure on miner profits.

All-time high

Bitcoin mining difficulty is currently at 129 trillion, up 6.4% in the past 90 days. This makes solving new blocks and earning rewards harder than ever. Meanwhile, #hashprice (revenue per unit of computational power) has dropped to just $60 per petahash, indicating that miner profits are being squeezed.

Another noteworthy metric is that transaction fees have fallen below 1% of total block rewards for the first time in history. Miner revenue comes from fixed block rewards (3.125 $BTC ) and transaction fees. The sharp decline in transaction fees suggests that demand for using the network for transactions is decreasing.

Pressure from tariffs

Bitcoin miners in the U.S. are facing additional financial pressure from high import tax rates, reaching up to 57.6% on mining equipment from China. Major companies like CleanSpark and Iris Energy are facing potential liabilities of $185 million and $100 million respectively from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for imported equipment.

These factors create a challenging landscape for the Bitcoin mining industry, indicating declining profits and increasing risks, even as Bitcoin prices remain high. #anh_ba_cong