Bitcoin mining difficulty of the bitcoin network has set a new all-time high of 14.78T at the block height 612864 at 23:42 UTC on Jan 14. It is estimated that the mining difficulty will increase by 7.14% to 15.83 T, with 14 days and eight hours left, according to BTC.com.

In the past month, bitcoin’s hash rate has climbed 13E. It means that miners have put in roughly 13,000,000,000,000,000,000 more hashes in hopes of finding the next block for the network despite the price of bitcoin hovered around $7,000 for nearly two months.

Along with the increase of mining difficulty and hashrate, bitcoin price has also seen over $500 gains in the past few days. Not only has bitcoin shows strength, other cryptocurrencies that are expected to halve in 2020 have also shown strong upside, with Bitcoin SV, bitcoin cash, Dash, ETC, ZEC, BCD and XZC all registering double-digit percentage gains over the night.

Among them, the best performer Bitcoin SV (BSV) once surged 145% in the day on Jan.14, making it surpass BCH to be the fourth largest coin by market cap.

The pump from the Asian market, together with the latest court documents that state the self-proclaimed bitcoin creator Craig Wright has compiled with the court order and has supplied the addresses, is believed to be the major drive behind BSV’s sudden rally. Over the night, the controversial cryptocurrency kept the upward momentum, hitting $300 and then $400 all the way up.

On the other hand, Bitcoin’s latest rally and the surges of some other halving coins have led some to associate it with the upcoming halvings.

Prior to it, some industry influencers and analysts have predicted a bullish market in 2020 led by the bitcoin halving event, with Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex, and Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, expecting the bitcoin price to reach at least $20,000.

Apart from bitcoin, other 7 cryptocurrencies including BCH, BSV, ETC, DASH, ZEC, XZC and BEAM are expected to be halved in 2020.

Bitcoin halving has been the focus of the halving talk that’s permeated the crypto sphere for months with the reduction of mining rewards historically associated with increases in price.

Data shows that each halving has been accompanied by price increases. The price of bitcoin before the first halving in 2012 was $2.55, and a year after the event the price went up to $1,037. The second halving in 2016 saw prices jump nearly tenfold in a year, from $268 to $2,525.

Both BCH and BSV are bitcoin’s fork coins that operate similarly to bitcoin, so they will also be halved, and both earlier than bitcoin. While for ETC, the total block reward is reduced by 20% every five million blocks; and Dash reduces its coin emission by 7.14% around every 383.25 days. Also in 2020, Zcash (ZEC) will undergo its first halving, the release rate will drop from 50 to 25 ZEC per block.

With a bunch of halving events imminent in 2020, there will be no shortage of talking points. Last night’s massive rally has made some to associate it with the upcoming halving, whether these halvings will finally usher in increases in coin prices, leave your comment below.