Bitcoin’s Hashrate Hits Record High Amid Increased Mining Difficulty
Bitcoin Hashrate Reaches All-Time High: What Does This Mean Ahead of the Halving?
Bitcoin’s hashrate recently hit an all-time high, even though the price remains below 42,000 US dollars. This phenomenon raises many questions, particularly with regard to the upcoming halving.
A Look at the Bitcoin Mining Sector
The latest data shows that Bitcoin’s hashrate has been steadily increasing over the past few months and recently hit an all-time high of over 655 exahashes. According to Coinwarz, Bitcoin’s hashrate is 529.99 EH/s at the time of writing.
With the increase in hashrate, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has also increased over the same period. Currently, the mining difficulty of BTC is at 70.34 T.
Possible Reasons for the Increase
One possible reason for the increase in these metrics could be the upcoming halving, which is scheduled for April 2024. As the halving halves the miners’ rewards, they may have been trying to earn more rewards before the event takes place.
Another reason could be an increase in miners’ revenues, which could have attracted more miners to the network. However, this does not seem to be the case. An analysis of data from Glassnode shows that miners’ revenues have actually been declining in recent weeks.
Are Miners Selling Bitcoin?
Despite an influx of new miners, it was surprising to see that they were selling their Bitcoin holdings. Our analysis showed that the net position change of BTC miners remained constant over the past month, indicating high sales.
You should read that too:
An increase in selling pressure from the miners could affect the price of Bitcoin. Although the miners continued to sell, this was not the prevailing sentiment in the market. A look at the chart from Santiment shows that the supply of BTC on exchanges has dropped significantly.
Future Prospects
At the same time, the supply of Bitcoin outside of exchanges increased, indicating an increase in buying pressure. An increase in buying pressure usually means that investors are confident in BTC and expect the price to rise in the coming weeks.
However, the statistics of the derivatives market paint a different picture. For example, the ratio of buyers to sellers for BTC remained red. This suggests that the selling sentiment prevails on the futures market.
At the time of writing, BTC was trading at 41,076.50 US dollars, with a market capitalization of over 805 billion US dollars.
Sources: Coinwarz, Glassnode, Santiment, CryptoQuant.
| Symbol | BTC |
| Coin type | Alt Coin |
| Transaction Speed | Slow |
| Pros |
|
| Cons |
|
Advertising transparency