Bitcoin mining difficulty soared to a new peak on Wednesday, rising by 2% to achieve an all-time high of 88.1 trillion at block height 840,672, according to Bitbo data. This significant increase, the first adjustment since the recent halving event, marks a historic moment as it is the first time that the mining difficulty has risen in the first adjustment following a halving. In contrast, past adjustments post-halving have typically seen decreases, such as -2% in November 2020, 0% in July 2016, and -6% in May 2020, with the second adjustments experiencing even sharper declines of -12%, -5%, and -9% respectively.

This adjustment indicates a robust resilience in the Bitcoin network, especially considering the historical trend of declining miner profitability due to reduced block subsidy rewards. Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how challenging it is to find a new block compared to the simplest possible scenario and is recalibrated every 2016 blocks, or approximately every two weeks. This ensures that a new block is mined every 10 minutes, maintaining the regularity of mining operations irrespective of the number of active miners.

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