2023 proved to be a testing year for the Bitcoin mining ecosystem, with record-high hash rates and mining difficulty putting pressure on miners to sell Bitcoin (BTC) to cover operational costs.
An annual review of the Bitcoin mining sector published by Compass Mining highlights the significant growth in the global hash rate in 2023. The network’s hash rate started the year at 266 exahashes per second (EH/s) and would more than double to 542 EH/s to close out 2023, marking a 103% annual increase.
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The rise in hash rate was mirrored by a rise in mining difficulty, a feature baked into the Bitcoin mining protocol to maintain an average block creation time of 10 minutes. As more miners increased global hash rates, the Bitcoin average difficulty started the year at 35 T and ended at 72 T on Dec. 31.
In 2023, several miners significantly increased their hash rates.$IREN started the year with 1.7 EH/s and witnessed a growth to 5.6 EH/s within six months, marking a 273% increase.
The company, with an operational hash rate of 6.0 EH/s, has subsequently provided revised… pic.twitter.com/qL2fjY8xGA
— Anthony P⭕️wer (@cazenove_uk) January 28, 2024
Hash rate battle
Bitcoin mining analyst Anthony Power unpacked how several miners increased their hash rates through 2023 to stay abreast of the network’s increase.
Power notes that Iris Energy started the year with 1.7 EH/s and grew to 5.6 EH/s within six months, marking a 273% increase. As Cointelegraph reported in December 2023, Iris aims to double its hash rate in 2024 to over 11 EH/s, and Power noted that the expansion of its Childress site in Texas could reach 20 EH/s by the year’s end with the option to acquire an additional 9 EH/s of miners.
Bitcoin’s hash rate steadily rose through 2023. Source: Compass Mining/CoinWarz
Marathon Digital also saw a “substantial surge in its operating hash rate during 2023,” increasing by 253% from 7.0 EH/s to 24.7 EH/s. Power highlighted that Marathon aims to achieve 50 EH/s in the next two years following the acquisition of two mining…
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