Bitcoin’s imminent difficulty change appears to be heading towards a possible decrease, marking the first time in over 73 days, ever since February 12, 2023.
The network has witnessed a notable difficulty upswing of approximately 22.62% since block height 778,176. Consequently, with the current block times in place, the mining participants of the network may finally see a drop.
The decline in Bitcoin’s difficulty level could potentially take place around May 4, 2023. The hash rate of the network currently stands at 332 exahash per second (EH/s) after experiencing a dip to 290 EH/s on Tuesday.
Presently, the estimations for the next difficulty drop hover around -1% to -4%. However, with over a week, or more than a thousand blocks, yet to go before the next difficulty adjustment, the exact figures remain uncertain.
Nonetheless, a reduction after the five consecutive increases and the 22%+ surge in difficulty in the last two months will undoubtedly give miners a much-needed respite. Moreover, the price of bitcoin has also been on an upward trajectory, providing miners with a higher daily revenue until the next retarget.
On April 26, Bitcoin’s value spiked 6% higher, surging above the $29K range. This notable increase has come as a breath of fresh air for the miners who had been bracing themselves through five back-to-back difficulty increases.
Over the past three days, Foundry USA has contributed a substantial hash power of 110.30 EH/s, which accounts for 32.68% of the total hash rate. Following behind, Antpool has produced 79.62 EH/s or 23.59% of the total hash rate, securing its position as the second-largest mining pool. Foundry and Antpool’s hash rates are followed by F2pool, Viabtc, and Binance Pool, respectively.