Bitcoin Faces Second Largest Difficulty Drop in History After Latest Adjustment

Bitcoin's mining difficulty saw its second largest drop in history, with a -15 percent adjustment on Monday, Dec. 3, as per data provided by major Chinese mining pool BTC.com.

Bitcoin's hashing difficulty algorithm is normally adjusted every two weeks to maintain the normal 10-minute block time.

It has been adjusted for the second time today since the beginning of a so-called "Crypto winter" in mid-November, after which the difficulty in mining Bitcoin has been steadily dropping.

The most recent adjustments of Bitcoin's hashing difficulty.

The largest drop in Bitcoin's difficulty history happened on Oct. 31, 2011, with an adjustment of -18 percent, while another decrease in mid-October 2011 is the third largest such decrease.

A recent adjustment of Bitcoin's hashing difficulty was preceded by a massive market drop, with Bitcoin losing more than a third of its price since Nov. 14, according to CoinMarketCap.

Financial experts have attributed the market collapse to regulatory pressure, the hash rate war after controversial Bitcoin Cash hard fork, and the "Terrible" condition of global markets.

At the time of the forecast, Bitcoin was trading around $6,400.

In late November, a week after the massive drop when Bitcoin hovered around $4,300, Chinese miners reportedly started to sell mining machines by weight, as opposed to price per unit.

After a mild recovery over the weekend, where Bitcoin managed to stay slightly above $4,000, the world's top cryptocurrency has collapsed again today, Dec. 3.