Despite Bitcoin's falling price, its mining difficulty has risen to new ATH

Bitcoin price performance may be leaving many crypto enthusiasts with a bitter taste, but data shows that this has not affected the level of competition among miners.

Bitcoin mining difficulty keeps rising

According to data, Bitcoin's mining difficulty hit a new high of 27.97 trillion today. This is the second consecutive year in which the network's mining difficulty has reached new heights.

Mining difficulty simply means the degree of competition among miners in the network. A higher difficulty level means that miners are competing hard to validate or confirm block transactions and earn rewards.

We reported earlier this week that the Bitcoin mining hashrate also reached a new high of ATH. The mining hashrate is used to determine the computing power needed to mine and process transactions on the network.

The Bitcoin mining difficulty has been rising in tandem to the BTC mining hashrate, which shows the confidence and progress that the space has made within the past year.

This period saw increased environmental concerns regarding crypto mining activities. This led to a dramatic drop in Bitcoin mining difficulty and hash rate.

Both have since recovered, as miners have found new homes. They are now in high demand and can compete with each other.

Bitcoin at $40k cliff

Bitcoin is currently trading at $40,807. Its price has fallen by more than 5% in the past 24 hours. According to available data, the asset experienced a moderate selloff on February 17th which led to the current price movement.

Many crypto analysts viewed the price action as a cliff and gave different opinions. Popular trader Crypto Ed said he felt the asset required a miracle after the unexpected downturn in its value.

Bitcoin traded between $40,000 and $45,000 this year as its value plummeted at the beginning of the year. Although the asset has seen some gains, it still remains far from its ATH of $69k.

Jurrien Timmer was Fidelity's global macro director. He advised his followers not to pay attention to the recent Bitcoin performance, and instead, focus on the asset's network growth.

Timer noted that Bitcoin addresses with a value greater than zero continue to move higher and that the up-or down (price movement debate) debate is still a popular hobby for many. But it's mostly noise. The network is what matters to Bitcoin.