Bitcoin fell 2.0% this week; miners now break even at 7.6¢/kWh for power.

what changed

Bitcoin closed at $82,002 on Oct 18, down 2.0% on the week. Mining has got 5.9% harder since Oct 14 (the network's difficultydifficultyA protocol setting that adjusts every ~2 weeks to keep blocks arriving about every 10 minutes, rising and falling with hashrate.See it on the site →), so each machine now earns less bitcoin for the same electricity.

why it matters

A typical modern miner (20 J/THJ/THJoules per terahash: how much electricity a mining machine burns for each unit of work. Lower is more efficient. New machines are around 15–20; older ones 30 or more.) can now pay up to 7.6¢ per kWh ($76/MWhMWhMegawatt-hour, 1,000 kWh: the unit wholesale power is priced in. $76 per MWh is 7.6¢ per kWh, the unit on a household bill.) for power and still cover it, down from 8.3¢ in the week of Oct 5–11. That week wholesale power at the ERCOTERCOTThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas: the operator of most of Texas's power grid and its wholesale electricity market, home to many US Bitcoin miners. Houston hub averaged 4.2¢ per kWh, well under the line, so running paid. Bitcoin sells for 1.3 times what it costs in electricity to mine one coin (~$63k at 5¢ per kWh), so a mid-efficiency miner paying that much for power still makes money.

where to look next

• What to watch →mempool.space estimates the next difficulty reset, at block 973,728 around October 30, at +2.44%.
• Gas, rates and the dollar now →what each means for Bitcoin, in one line