Bitcoin’s hashrate has started to recover, moving toward its all-time high seen before the March 12-13 crypto market crash that saw BTC lose about 50% of its value.
Before the crash, bitcoin’s hashrate was at an all-time high of 137 million TH/s, but the cryptocurrency’s price drop likely saw miners turn off their machines or move to mine cryptocurrencies using the same algorithm but with lower difficulty to stay afloat. As a result, the hashrate plummeted to about 75 million TH/s.
CryptoCompare data shows that as the price of bitcoin started recovering, so did its hashrate as it bounced back to a 123 million TH/s high before dropping to about 100 million TH/s. It’s worth noting hashrate fluctuations are common as these are estimated based on the blocks being found.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been growing significantly over the last few years, although its price hasn’t moved in tandem with it. In April 2019 the cryptocurrency’s hashrate was of about 46 million TH/s, while in December 2017, when BTC was at an all-time high close to $20,000, it was of 13.5 million TH/s.
The hashrate has been rising because of the flagship cryptocurrency’s upcoming halving event, that will see its block rewards drop from 12.5 ₿ to 6.25 ₿ per block. Miners have been adding to their hashrate to mint as much BTC as possible before its inflation drops.
The mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network posted the second-biggest drop in its history after its hashrate plummeted, as available data showed difficulty dropped nearly 16% to 13.91 trillion (T) from 16.55 T. As the hashrate increases, mining difficulty is likely going to rise again.
Featured image via Pixabay.
