Bitcoin mining difficulty approaches ATH as price stabilizes above $ 18K



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The price of Bitcoin has peaked at over $ 19,000 in two years and has fallen below $ 17,000 more than once in a week as mining difficulties continue to rise.

According to chain analytics provider Glassnode, Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty rose 8.9% today, putting the metric below 5% of its all-time high last month.

An increase in mining difficulty marked the start of bullish cycles in 2013 and 2016, but it remains to be seen whether the coin’s recent rally below 3% of its ATH price is bullish in the long term. The price of Bitcoin fell 11% last week as many whales transferred some of their holdings to exchanges and is $ 18,122 at the time of publication.

Greater difficulty in mining can mean increased fees for users and the time it takes to generate a block in addition to increasing the number of unexploited transactions in Bitcoin’s mempool. According to Earn.com estimates, the optimal BTC transaction fee is currently 14,272 satoshis, or around $ 2.60.

The Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has also seen record highs recently. Glassnode reported The mining difficulty for the network was at a two-year high on Friday after the token price fell from over $ 600 on November 23 to $ 513 in three days.