Hashrate

Bitcoin Hashrate at ATH

Looking at the Bitcoin blockchain explorer, Blockchain.com, the hashing power on the BTC network has been growing since the past weeks. Currently, the hashrate is sitting at a new record level of 150.776 million terahashes per second or TH/s. As recently as January 8, Crypto News Australia reported the previous all-time high at 148.727 million TH/s, which happened when the Bitcoin’s price was pushing for the US$40,000.

Judging by this, one might say that the current trend in the Bitcoin hashrate is somewhat influenced by the growth of the crypto. However, on-chain metrics suggest that some miners have turned to take profits, than hodling the cryptocurrency for the long term. This was probably caused by Bitcoin’s correction from January 10, as Miner Position Index (MPI) was seen spiking notably at the same time.

Miners are Selling

A recent chart shared by Ki-Young Ju, the founder of CryptoQuant, showed that the ratio of Bitcoin leaving miners’ wallets to exchanges in the 1-year moving average has been growing steadily. As of January 12, the MPI reached 5.26 points, which is more than double the standard (2 points), which shows miners are beginning to sell their coins. Massive inflows from miners to exchanges can disrupt Bitcoin’s volatility, and Ki-Young thinks, “we might have second dumping.”

However, more BTC buys from institutions can alter the effect of these deposits from miners, as was seen in December.

Since December last year, they had been selling $BTC, but the correction was tiny due to institutional buying power.
— Ki Young Ju 주기영 (@ki_young_ju) January 10, 2021

The Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate has significantly surged to another level not seen since the cryptocurrency’s history. Noteworthily, hashrate is the measure of the entire processing/hashing power on the BTC network. So, more mining machines are going online on the cryptocurrency’s network. Meanwhile, this is coming at the time when Bitcoin is posting massive price growth.

However, with every increase in BTC hashrate, the mining difficulty will also increase accordingly to balance the new BTC supply rate.

#Bitcoin hashrate hits all-time-high (7d ma)

chart: @glassnode pic.twitter.com/x0DbyiTiAm
— unfolded. (@cryptounfolded) January 7, 2021

Bitcoin Miners are Getting More Bullish

Bitcoin network hashrate broke all-time-high (7d ma), according to data from Glassnode, an on-chain analytics platform. A further glance at Blockchain.com, the crypto’s network explorer, revealed the hashrate to be 148.727 million terahashes per second or TH/s. The data shows that Bitcoin miners are deploying more advanced mining machines on the network.

This was more likely caused by the growing price of Bitcoin since the past month, December 2020.

Since leading cryptocurrency broke through the US$20,000 level, it has continued to rise gradually. As of January 1, the cryptocurrency closed the day at US$$29,374, according to Coinmarketcap. Fast forward to the present, the price of Bitcoin is well above US$30,000, nearing the US$40,000 level with its current price around US$38,000 at the time of writing.

With such a price, BTC’s market capitalization sits above US$717 billion, which is the major contributor to the US$1 trillion global digital currency market.

BTC Mining Profitability

Following the price performance of Bitcoin, it’s safe to mention that the BTC mining business is currently profitable. Miners are making more profits due to the growing price of the cryptocurrency. Plausibly, this is causing them to deploy more machines on the network, thereby spiking the overall hashrate at 148.727 million TH/s.

Meanwhile, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the next BTC mining difficulty adjustment will rise to an all-time high to balance the ease with BTC mining.