The price of Bitcoin has stabilized above the $18,000 region in recent days, while the difficulty of mining cryptomorphs continues to grow

Mining difficulty in the Bitcoin network is approaching a new record, after rising 8.9% in the last 24 hours. The hashrate of the Bitcoin network (BTC) is now above 130 EH/s. Data provided by on-chain analysis provider Glassnode has revealed that the mining difficulty is now less than 5% away from setting a new record.

Glassnode tweeted that “Mining difficulty #Bitcoin increased by 8.9% today. It is now just 4.4% below its ATH”.

The price of Bitcoin passed the $19,000 mark for the first time in three years, but fell to less than $17,000 more than once in the week as bulls and bears struggled to control the market. However, the price has risen more than 5% in the last 24 hours and the BTC is currently trading at $18,508.

The increased difficulty of mining has generated enthusiasm in the market for cryptomorphs, as similar events marked the previous bullish cycles of 2013 and 2016. However, it is not yet clear whether the current bull race would set a new all-time record after Bitcoin came 3% closer to its previous record.

While an increase in mining difficulty may be good for the price of cryptomede, it is not a good sight for users. An increase in mining difficulty implies higher fees for users and more time needed to generate a block. This means that the transaction time in the network would be longer and there would be an increase in the number of non-mining transactions in the Bitcoin mempool.

Ethereum Hashrate increases as Bitcoin Future developers prepare Ethereum 2.0

The increase in mining difficulty is not restricted to the Bitcoin network. According to Glassnode, the Ethereum network set a new mining difficulty record on 27 November. This caused the ETH price to fall from $600 to $513 in a few days. However, the Ether is on the rise, as it has currently risen more than 10% in the last 24 hours and has traded at $587 per currency.

The increasing difficulty of Ethereum mining comes at a time when network developers are preparing to launch Ethereum 2.0. The launch of Ethereum 2.0 would see Ethereum change to a Proof Of Stake protocol instead of its current Proof Of Work protocol. The difficulty of mining would no longer be a problem, as the network would involve the staking of coins.