Bitcoin price may increase much greater in the coming days after new data show bitcoin mining difficulty grew since the cryptocurrency declined in May.

Bitcoin settled at $39,823.06, up 12.3% in the last seven days, according to price monitoring by Coingecko, Monday. 

The global crypto market is in the green Sunday, with a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a 1.56% rise over the previous day. The total crypto market volume in the last 24 hours is $74.91 billion, which is a 16.73% decrease.

In the latter part of the month, China ordered a halt in bitcoin mining operations, causing the abrupt drop of bitcoin's price, which saw its peak in the middle of May.

Chinese clampdown

The order resulted in Chinese bitcoin miners to sell their machines or leave China or even both.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high near $65,000 in mid-April as market euphoria peaked and the U.S. exchange Coinbase launched its initial public offering through a direct stock listing.

But the price slipped over the next few months as Chinese regulators clamped down on cryptocurrency mining and exchanges and regulators around the world followed suit by carrying out their own industry policies.

Rate of difficulty

According to BTC.com, bitcoin mining difficulty has increased by more than 6% on Saturday, its first since it plunged in May.

"For the first time since China's hashrate went lights out, we are anticipating next week's adjustment to be positive," Said Luxor, a Seattle-based mining company.

Cause of increase

The increase in bitcoin's mining difficulty is seen as a result of Chinese bitcoin miners' resumption of operation or more mining machines have started to come back online. 

The level of difficulty for mining cryptocurrencies is a gauge for the increase in prices of bitcoin.

As the difficulty increases, the more miners need to use more computing power; the more they do, the more the mining process reduces their profits.