Bitcoin’s mining difficulty may be set to increase for the first time since China’s crackdown on crypto mining in May. A rapid expansion of mining facilities in North America and the return of Chinese miners through overseas hosting sites are two major factors that will drive up mining difficulty, according to industry pros. Mining difficulty is a metric to describe how hard it is to mine a block and get rewards in bitcoin (BTC, +8.03%). An increase in mining difficulty requires a miner to use more computing power to earn bitcoin, which reduces the miner’s profit margin. The more mining machines are online, the ... (full story)