Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record With Pressure Mounting

An industry metric of how challenging it is to mine Bitcoin climbed to a record high with competition intensifying among the companies that mint the cryptocurrency.

Mining difficulty inched up 3.5% on Wednesday, according to data from crypto-mining tracker CoinWarz. The measure, which has been climbing steadily over time, tends to mirror expectations for directional price changes. Bitcoin has dropped about 10% in the aftermath of a software code adjustment in April known as the halving that slashed by half the possible revenue available to miners, pressuring the margins of many of the companies.

“The effect of the all-time high ...