Bitcoin's mining difficulty registered a new record high of 83.95 trillion hashes on Thursday.

The new all-time high was reached on the same day as the world's largest crypto reached a new record price of $73,835 on a boost to investor sentiment before next month's Bitcoin halving.

Mining difficulty refers to the level of difficulty associated with "mining" Bitcoin through the solution of cryptographic puzzles, which adjust in challenge based on the quantity of miners participating in the network, Cointelegraph reports.

Bitcoin hit the new difficulty high of 83.95 trillion hashes, a 5.8% rise from the previous 79.35 trillion reached on 29th February. The rate was set at 613.94 exahashes per second (EH/s), a 1.96% rise over the 602.14 EH/s from the last cycle.

In addition, the upper momentum of Bitcoin's price action continued, which is benefiting miners. Indeed, mining rewards reached $78.89 million on Monday, exceeding the previous rewards top of $74.4 million from October 2021. This took place as BTC reached $72,953 on Tuesday, before edging back to $69,655.

Experts and commentators across the cryptocurrency industry have linked Bitcoin's consistent expansion during the fourth quarter of 2023 and continuing into the first quarter of 2024 to the impending halving event scheduled for the middle of next month.

The halving marks a significant event in which the block reward for mining BTC is reduced by half, from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. 

This process has occurred three times in the past: on 28th November 2014, when rewards dropped from 50 BTC to 25 BTC; on 9th July 2016, when rewards decreased from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC; and most recently, on 11th May 2020, when block rewards were reduced to 6.25 BTC.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $66,985.