Bitcoin mining difficulty is set to surge once again, erasing the recent reduction and reaching another record-setting high. The next difficulty adjustment is estimated to increase between 4.74% and 7.7%, scheduled to take place on July 12, 2023. This will make it the most challenging period in history for miners to uncover BTC blocks.

Despite the difficulty reaching historically high levels, several factors have contributed to the rise in hashrate, including the increase in BTC's value, the introduction of next-generation ASIC mining rigs, and the expansion of mining operations that survived the 'Crypto Winter' of 2022.

The total hashrate achieved a 24-hour all-time high on July 8, reaching 538 exahash per second (EH/s) at block height 797,733, indicating that the mining competition is heating up once again.