Bitcoin mining difficulty has surged to a new all-time high of 86.4 trillion, as reported by BTC.com, just days before the anticipated halving event. This recent adjustment marks a 3.4% increase from the previous difficulty level of 83 trillion set on March 28.

The uptick in mining difficulty underscores the ongoing growth in the challenges faced by miners as they strive to secure the network and validate transactions. With the halving event expected to cut miner rewards by 50%, miners are intensifying their efforts to mine Bitcoin efficiently before the impending changes to the reward structure.

This latest adjustment is likely the final one before the halving event, scheduled to take place in eight days on April 19, according to data from M2. The next mining difficulty adjustment is anticipated to occur approximately 13 days later, around April 24.

Bitcoin mining difficulty is a crucial metric that reflects the level of computational effort required to mine new blocks and maintain the network's security under the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. It adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to ensure a consistent target block time of 10 minutes.

The surge in mining difficulty is closely tied to the increase in the Bitcoin hash rate, which measures the total computational power dedicated to mining and processing transactions on the network. The hash rate has experienced significant growth recently, rising from around 619 exahashes per second (EH/s) on March 28 to 696 EH/s on April 10, according to BTC.com.

Despite the recent surge, some analysts anticipate a potential drop in the hash rate following the halving event. Galaxy's mining analysts suggest that up to 20% of Bitcoin's current hash rate could go offline post-halving, as miners may deactivate their rigs due to reduced profitability. They attribute over 70% of the Bitcoin hash rate to just eight ASIC miner models as of the end of 2023.