Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has hit a new all-time high after jumping roughly 13.55% in its latest adjustment.  It now requires 35.6 trillion hashes to mine one bitcoin. BTC’s hashrate is also near all-time highs.

Policymakers at the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) have approved the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation following a vote from the European Council.

Ethereum’s supply has dropped by around 4,000 ETH so far this week in the first deflationary turn the cryptocurrency token has taken since the network moved to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism with the Merge.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New All-Time High
• European Parliament Passes Landmark Crypto Assets Regulation Bill
• Ethereum’s Supply Turns Deflationary For First Time Since Merge
• Chart of the Week: Ethereum’s Post-Merge Downturn

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New All-Time High

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has hit a new all-time high after jumping roughly 13.55% in its latest adjustment. It now requires 35.6 trillion hashes to mine one bitcoin. BTC’s hashrate is also near all-time highs.

Bitcoin’s code includes a difficulty adjustment every 2,016 blocks, which are mined roughly every two weeks, to keep block confirmation steady at around 10 minutes each. The size and direction of the adjustment depend on the hashrate backing BTC.

Bitcoin’s current hashrate is roughly 257 million terahashes per second (TH/s), up from around 140 million TH/s last year.  More hashrate means there’s more computing power backing the network, making it more secure.

Higher mining difficulty makes it harder for miners to remain profitable, especially taking into account the relatively low BTC prices and the higher energy costs amid rising inflation.

European Parliament Passes Landmark Crypto Assets Regulation Bill

Policymakers at the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) have approved the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation following a vote from the European Council.

ECON member Stefan Berger confirmed the committee accepted the MiCA legislation, which came following a trialogue of negotiations between the EU Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament.

MiCA, first introduced to the European Commission in September 2020, sets to bring the issuance of cryptocurrencies under the wing of institutional regulation and establishes a first-time regime for cryptoasset service providers in the EU. It imposes reserve requirements on stablecoins and is meant to avoid Terra-style collapses.

The crypto policies could go into effect in 2024, following legal and linguistic checks and approval of the final text by the Parliament.

Ethereum’s Supply Turns Deflationary For First Time Since Merge

Ethereum’s supply has dropped by around 4,000 ETH so far this week in the first deflationary turn the cryptocurrency token hastaken since the network moved to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism with the Merge.

Every Ethereum transaction includes a gas fee meant to prevent an overload of malicious requests on the network. Since EIP-1559, a portion of the fees is automatically burned, meaning that when the volume of gas being burned surpasses ETH’s issuance, the cryptocurrency turns deflationary.

According to available data, the total amount of ETH in circulation has dropped by over 4,000 tokens so far this week, after average gas fees on the network surged over 200% over the launch of a new crypto project called XEN Crypto.

Etherscan data shows XEN Crypto transactions account for 33% of all gas used network-wide over the last 24-hour period. The cryptocurrency defines itself as a “universal cryptocurrency” that will accumulate worth “as more and more people join and participate in minting.” The token has been labeled a Ponzi scheme by observers on social media.

Chart of the Week: Ethereum’s Post-Merge Downturn

Ethereum underwent the Merge upgrade on September 15, and has since then lost 19.3% of its market capitalization. In total, Ethereum’s market cap declined by around $40 billion.

The market downturn saw Ethereum’s market cap dominance drop 19.6% to 16.8% after the Merge. It was anticipated that the Merge would increase interest in Ethereum, which has not been the case in the short term as macroeconomic conditions continue to affect risk assets.

Find out more via CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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