Miner Weekly: Bitcoin Hashrate is Going Bananas

This article first appeared in Miner Weekly, BlocksBridge Consulting’s weekly newsletter curating the latest news in bitcoin mining and data analysis from TheEnergyMag. Subscribe to receive in your inbox once a week.

Halfway through the current difficulty epoch, bitcoin’s hashrate has increased so much that it has accelerated the average block production interval to about 8 minutes and 56 seconds. That is 11.9% faster than the intended 10-minute-per-block interval.

Following a strong market rebound from $55,000 that began in mid-July, bitcoin’s seven-day moving average hashrate has climbed up from a local low of 558 EH/s to an all-time high of 662 EH/s. The increase of 100 EH/s within a month is the equivalent of plugging in 500,000 units of Bitmain’s Antminer S21 into the network.

Although the next difficulty retargeting is a few days away, the current block production interval suggests the next adjustment could see a notable difficulty jump by over 11% to set a new record above 90 trillion for the first time. That would also be the single largest adjustment since October 2022.

Publicly traded bitcoin mining companies have likely been a major force pushing the hashrate as recently they began plugging in batches of newly arrived new-gen ASIC miners from their pre-orders placed since Q3 last year. 15 public mining companies tracked by TheEnergyMag installed 15 EH/s additional hashrate in June compared to May.

The combined market share for bitcoin production by mining pubcos. returned to 21.4% in June, the highest since December. It appears that they are on track for further consolidation this month. In July so far, Marathon’s MARA Pool alone mined 170 bitcoin blocks with an average of 7.08 blocks per day, which was 35% higher than that in June.

And public miners are not slowing down. Over the past week alone, HIVE announced an expansion plan of 100 MW in Paraguay. UAE’s Phoenix Group is doubling down on the U.S. with 25 MW in South Carolina, while Riot acquired Block Mining to expand 60 MW in Kentucky with a plan to scale that up to 110 MW this year.

Regulation News

Council reaffirms denial of crypto mining permit – Brainerd Dispatch

Hardware and Infrastructure News

HIVE to Expand Bitcoin Mining Capacity by 100 MW in Paraguay – TheEnergyMag
UAE Bitcoin Miner Phoenix Adds 25 MW in South Carolina – TheEnergyMag
Iris Energy Increases Childress Capacity from 600MW to 750MW – Link
Solo Miner Mines Bitcoin Block with 3 TH/s Hashrate – TheEnergyMag

Corporate News

MARA Pool Ramps up Bitcoin Production as Uptime Improves – TheEnergyMag
Marathon Set to Appeal $138 Million Bitcoin Mining Verdict – TheEnergyMag
Swan Bitcoin Drops IPO Plan, Cuts Staff and Will Shut Managed Mining Unit – CoinDesk
Foundry Launches Miner Donation Program to Support Bitcoin Ecosystem – TheEnergyMag
Bitmain Sues JWKJ for $15 Million in Bitcoin Mining Dispute – TheEnergyMag
Riot’s Bitcoin Takeover Intensifies as Bitfarms Adopts New Rights Plan – TheEnergyMag