Ethereum has been rising consistently over the last few weeks, crossing the $4,000 barrier for the first time ever. However, the mining difficulty has also kept up with this rapid increase in its price. Over the last two months, the difficulty has increased by a whopping 50%, marking the highest spike since the blockchain was introduced five years back.

Moreover, with the London hard folk looming over the horizon, Ethereum difficulty is expected to only increase in the coming months. However, if the price increase is able to keep up with the difficulty, the cryptocurrency might just end up being profitable for miners even after Ether 2.0 is fully rolled out. The first phase is slated to be released sometime in July.
Other than algorithmic changes, the difficulty of a blockchain is also dictated by the number of miners presently mining it. As more and more hardware is dedicated to mining, the circulation of the currency goes up and so does the difficulty.