- The April 2024 halving reduced miner block rewards by half, significantly cutting revenue for the same work.
- Large miners like Marathon and CleanSpark increased production and Bitcoin holdings despite industry challenges.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has decreased. This change follows the highest level ever recorded at the end of May. On June 15th, the network registered a small downward adjustment.
The difficulty fell to approximately 126.4 trillion. This figure comes from data provided by CryptoQuant, a blockchain analytics firm. The previous peak, observed on May 31st, stood at 126.9 trillion.
This reduction, while minor, reflects the network’s automatic adjustment process. Bitcoin’s difficulty recalibrates roughly every two weeks. The adjustment responds directly to changes in the total hashrate. Hashrate represents the combined computing power miners dedicate to solving the Bitcoin network’s mathematical problems.
More miners joining the network typically cause the difficulty to rise
This increase helps maintain a steady rate of new block creation. Conversely, miners leaving the network, often due to high costs or inefficiency, trigger a downward difficulty adjustment. The overall hashrate remains substantial. It exceeded 1 zetahash per second (ZH/s) in April.
The April 2024 halving directly cut miner revenue. This scheduled event reduces the Bitcoin block reward by half every four years. The reward per block dropped to 3.125 BTC, down from 6.25 BTC.
Miners now earn half the Bitcoin for the same computational effort. Other factors compound this challenge. Rising electricity prices, increasing hardware costs, and the constant need to upgrade equipment strain finances.
Despite these headwinds, large, publicly traded mining companies show a different pattern. They are expanding operations and accumulating Bitcoin holdings. Marathon Digital Holdings reported producing about 35% more Bitcoin in May compared to April, totaling 950 BTC.
Crucially, Marathon chose not to sell any of this newly mined Bitcoin. Instead, the company added it to its corporate reserves. Marathon’s total Bitcoin holdings now reach 49,179 BTC.
“Record production month for MARA, and we sold zero Bitcoin,” stated Salman Khan, Marathon’s CFO, on June 3rd.
Similarly, CleanSpark reported positive results. This company, known partly for using renewable energy sources, mined 694 BTC in May. This output marks a rise of roughly 9% from April. CleanSpark’s operational capacity, measured by its hashrate, grew to 45.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) by May’s end.
CEO Zack Bradford linked this growth to sustained investment in efficient hardware and cleaner energy. He noted the company deliberately expanded its operations over time.
