$MASKS

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 3.6% to a record 92.67 trillion on September 11.  The increase comes as miners' profitability continues to decline, putting further pressure on companies that have struggled since the April halving.  The mining difficulty is adjusted every two weeks to keep the block discovery time constant.  Increasing difficulty indicates more miners joining the network.  At the same time, Bitcoin's rate is also increasing and has reached an average of 693 exahes per second.  However, the hash price, which is a measure of miners' income, has dropped to less than $40 per petahash, which is a record low.  This continued decline could be disastrous for many mining operations, especially those that have suffered losses since the halving.