On October 16th, according to BTC.com data, Bitcoin experienced a mining difficulty adjustment at block height 812,448, with a 6.47% increase to 61.03 T, reaching a new historical high. In addition, Bitcoin's mining difficulty has increased by about 71.4% compared to mid-October 2022.

Bitcoin's computing power broke the previous record on October 12, 2023. Measured by the 7-day simple moving average (SMA), it has soared to 455 exahashes per second (EH/s), which is impressive. From this perspective, on January 1, 2023, the computing power hovered around 261 EH/s. This means that in less than a year, it has leaped by 194 EH/s.

South Korean IC design company ADTechnology has announced that Samsung Foundry has received an order to manufacture server CPUs for an unnamed overseas company using 3nm process GAA transistor architecture. According to Samsung's product roadmap, there are at least three types of 3nm process (SF3E, SF3, SF3P) that use GAA transistor architecture.

The average network hash rate of large Bitcoin mining companies in the third quarter increased significantly. Seven companies were mainly responsible for this growth, including Bitdeer, CleanSpark, Marathon Digital, Cipher, Bit Digital, Bitfarms, and HIVE. According to data from TheMinerMag, from June to September, the monthly average increase in Bitcoin hash rate for these companies was 13.88EH/s. The data shows that the companies with the best performance in terms of computing power growth in the third quarter were Bitdeer, CleanSpark, and Marathon Digital, with increases of over 120%, 43%, and 38%, respectively.

Bitmain, a Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer, has reportedly halted employee salary payments for September and beyond, as well as cutting bonuses and incentives. The company allegedly has not paid remuneration due since last month and employees face a 50% cut to their base salary. Bitmain has cited a lack of net positive cash flow, particularly in new ASIC orders, as the reason for the pause in salary payments. Bitmain is one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturers, with an estimated 70% market share during its peak.

In this week’s State of the Network, we return with our quarterly mining data special, where we provide a close examination of the current Bitcoin mining landscape through the lens of Coin Metrics’ data. Despite a flat BTC market in the back half of Q3 as spot ETF chatter quieted, hashrate continued to accelerate throughout the quarter, recently hitting a new high of around 400 EH/s from 250 EH/s at the beginning of 2023. Hashprice conditions remain challenging, yet savvy miners continue to add operational hashrate.

According to Foundry USA's latest Hashrate Map, Texas accounts for more than 28% of all Bitcoin hashing power in the United States. Georgia, New York, and New Hampshire follow with 9.64%, 8.75%, and 5.33% hash rates, respectively. Texas has become a hub for crypto mining due to its cheaper energy and welcoming regulatory framework, with large mining operations moving to the state following China's crackdown on crypto mining in 2021.

The decentralized computing power market Lumerin has officially launched on Arbitrum, and anyone can purchase/sell/trade Bitcoin computing power through smart contracts. Currently, Lumerin market sellers must be added to the whitelist in order to list contracts.

Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific announced that Bitmain has agreed to invest $53.9 million in the company to expand the long-term cooperation between the two companies. According to the terms of the acquisition agreement, Bitmain will supply Core Scientific with 27,000 S19J XP 151 TH Bitcoin mining machines in exchange for $23.1 million in cash and $53.9 million in Core Scientific common stock, the value of which will be determined based on the Chapter 11 restructuring plan approved by the bankruptcy court. It is expected that the plan will be approved in the fourth quarter of this year. In addition, Bitmain has signed a new hosting agreement with Core Scientific to support its mining business.

According to Bloomberg analyst Jamie Coutts, the Bitcoin mining industry has managed to keep its carbon footprint low despite the network's expansion, which is a rare achievement. This could attract institutional investment as the sustainable energy mix for Bitcoin has continued to rise and is now over 50%. The incentive to acquire the cheapest energy sources is contributing to the network's rising hash rate while simultaneously reducing the industry's emissions or carbon intensity.