Bitcoin

Bitcoin Miners Get a 2.35% Difficulty Drop Following BTC’s Fall in Price

During the past week, Bitcoin’s hashrate has dropped a few percentages after reaching 288 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 8, 2022. Bitcoin miners, however, got a break on Wednesday, June 22, as the mining difficulty dropped by 2. 35% making it easier for miners to find blocks. 2. 35% drop brings the difficulty down to the 29. 50 trillion range for the next two weeks.

Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Drops to 2. 35%

On Wednesday, June 22, at block height 741,888, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty decreased 2. 35% lower than two weeks ago. At that time, the difficulty rating was 30. 28 trillion and today it is 29. 50 trillion. Furthermore, bitcoin’s fiat value dropped to a low of $17,593 on June 18.
Essentially, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) shifts every 2016 blocks and the changes are based on the amount of time it took to find the previous 2016 block subsidies. The difficulty is meant to keep block times consistent at roughly 10 minutes in between each BTC block found.
The last difficulty change at block height 739,872, two weeks ago, increased by 1.29%. That means the previous 2016 blocks before block height 739,872 took less than two weeks to find, which means miners were faster during the period. The DAA shift fell by 2. 35% today, the previous 2016 blocks were found at a much slower rate.
A 2. 35% reduction makes it 2. 35% easier to find BTC blocks than it was during the past two weeks or 2016 blocks found. BTC‘s block reward halving is expected to occur on April 23, 2024, and is less than 100,000 blocks away.
While the hashrate tapped 288 EH/s on June 8, the network’s hashrate dipped during the crypto market rout and it hit a low of 164 EH/s on June 18. At the time of writing on Wednesday, June 22, the hashrate is coasting along at speeds just below 200 EH/s.
Over the last three days, the top five BTC mining pools include Foundry USA, F2pool, Antpool, Poolin, and Viabtc. The aforementioned five BTC mining pools command 72.8% of the global hashrate today.

During the last month, 4,271 BTC blocks were mined into existence and Foundry discovered 959 of those blocks. Antpool found 636, F2pool discovered 591, Poolin found 457, and Viabtc found 434 bitcoin (BTC) block rewards.
In the next two weeks it will be 2. 35% easier to find BTC blocks than it was the two weeks before block height 741,888. Miners will be able to take advantage of the Wednesday DAA reduction because the price is lower.

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2016 block, Antpool, Bitcoin mining, block rewards, Blocks, Blocks found, BTC blocks, DAA, DAA change, difficulty, drop, F2Pool, Foundry USA, increase, mining bitcoin, Mining BTC, Poolin, Price Drop, ViaBTC

What do you think about Bitcoin’s difficulty reduction on Wednesday afternoon (ET)? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, a journalist and financial tech expert living in Florida, is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.

Bitcoin

What is the reason why SAND has risen by more than 10% within 24 hours?

The cryptocurrency market continues its positive start to the week with major coins trading in the green area. The cryptocurrency market has performed well in the last two days. In the last 24 hours, the market has added more than 3% to its value, pushing the total market cap above the $900 billion mark. Bitcoin…

The cryptocurrency market continues its positive start to the week with major coins trading in the green area.

The cryptocurrency market has performed well in the last two days. In the last 24 hours, the market has added more than 3% to its value, pushing the total market cap above the $900 billion mark.

Bitcoin surged past the $21k resistance level after adding 2.5% to its value over the last few hours. Ether is eyeing the $1,200 psychological level thanks to its ongoing rally.

However, SAND, the native token of The Sandbox metaverse, is one of the best performers amongst the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

SAND is up by more than 10% in the last 24 hours and currently trades at $0. 935 per coin. This positive step is primarily due to The Sandbox’s partnership and TIMEPieces (the NFT community initiative of TIME).

In a Medium post on Monday, The Sandbox said it has partnered with TIME to develop ‘TIME Square’, TIME’s first-ever destination in the metaverse.

Key level to watch

The SAND/USD 4-hour chart at the moment is bullish, as SAND has been doing well in recent days.

The MACD line is in the neutral zone. This is a significant improvement over the territory it held last week. The 14-day RSI of 64 shows that SAND could soon enter the oversold region over the coming hours or days.

If the market momentum continues, SAND could surge above the $1 psychological level in the next few hours. SAND could test $1 in the event of a prolonged rally. 08 resistance level before the end of the day.

However, we are still in bear market and the bears may regain control. SAND could fall towards the $0. 83 support level in the next few hours.

Bitcoin

Highlights June 21: Celsius rises almost 50%, cryptos remain green

The crypto market is bullish at the moment, with all the top 100 cryptocurrencys in the green as of this writing. Top cryptos Solana stood out, gaining more than 15%, followed by Cardano, Ethereum, and BNB, all gaining more than 7% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin was trading above $21,000 at the time of…

The crypto market is bullish at the moment, with all the top 100 cryptocurrencys in the green as of this writing.

Top cryptos

Solana stood out, gaining more than 15%, followed by Cardano, Ethereum, and BNB, all gaining more than 7% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin was trading above $21,000 at the time of writing, up more than 4% over the past 24 hours.

Cryptos outside the top 10 also fared well. Polkadot jumped more than 7%, but the standout is Polygon with 14%.

Top movers

Aside from the top 20,, the trend was similar with most coins adding 5-9% value. Notable standouts include Chainlink, up 12%, Aave with 14%, and Waves with 18%.

Elrond gained another 15% today. Since announcing a major partnership, Elrond has been rallying with institutions of the Romanian government.

Stacks has 16%, and 1inch Network has 17%.. Recent statistics show that Atomic Swaps on CurveFinance and 1inch registered an average 100 million daily volume.

Zilliqa was one of the largest winners, up 22% during the last 24 h.

XCAD Network allows YouTubers to issue their own fan tokens and NFTs. It allows Youtubers the ability to issue their own fan tokens. Zilliqa’s rally was supported by XCAD’s participation at a recent, very successful live event in NYC.

The big win is Celsius with gains in 49%. Even though Celsius Network is in trouble, the efforts to stabilize it are evidently effective or have an impact on its value.

Compound completes the #100 winners’ list with gains of 26%. The Compound III beta version app is now available to the community.

US Regulator Charges South African MTI and Its Operator With $1.7 Billion Fraud Involving Bitcoin

US Regulator Charges South African MTI and Its Operator in CFTC's Largest Bitcoin Fraud Case

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged Mirror Trading International (MTI) and its operator with a $1.7 billion fraud involving bitcoin. This action is the regulator’s largest fraud scheme case involving the cryptocurrency.

CFTC Takes Action Against MTI

The CFTC announced Thursday that it has charged a “South African pool operator and CEO with $1.7 billion fraud involving bitcoin.” The regulator added:

This action is CFTC’s largest fraud scheme case involving bitcoin.

The derivatives watchdog has filed a civil enforcement action, charging Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and Mirror Trading International Proprietary Ltd. (MTI) with “fraud and registration violations.”

From approximately May 18, 2018, through March 20 last year, “Steynberg, individually and as the controlling person of MTI, engaged in an international fraudulent multilevel marketing scheme … to solicit bitcoin from members of the public for participation in a commodity pool operated by MTI,” the CFTC detailed, elaborating:

During this period, Steynberg … accepted at least 29,421 bitcoin — with a value of over $1,733,838,372 at the end of the period.

The announcement adds that the CFTC “seeks full restitution to defrauded investors, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent registration and trading bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations.”

The derivatives watchdog described:

The defendants misappropriated, either directly or indirectly, all of the bitcoin they accepted from the pool participants.

The CFTC concluded: “Sternberg is a fugitive from South African law enforcement, but was recently detained in the Federative Republic of Brazil on an Interpol arrest warrant.”

What do you think about the CFTC’s action against MTI and its operator? Let us know in the comments section below.

Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.