Bitcoin Network Bigger Than Ever: Hashrate Sets New Record

On-chain data shows the 7-day average Bitcoin Hashrate has just set a new all-time high (ATH), despite the asset’s price still being down.

Bitcoin Hashrate Has Shot Up To New Highs Recently

The “Hashrate” refers to a Bitcoin metric that keeps track of the total amount of computing power that the miners as a whole have connected to the BTC network. Its value is measured in terms of hashes per second (H/s), or the more practical exahashes per second (EH/s).

When the indicator observes an increase, it means existing miners are in expansion mode and/or new validators are joining the blockchain. Such a trend implies BTC mining is appearing a profitable venture to this cohort.

On the other hand, the metric’s value going down implies some miners are pulling back on their power, likely because mining revenue is no longer justifying the electricity costs.

Now, here is a chart from Blockchain.com that shows the trend in the 7-day average value of the Bitcoin Hashrate over the past year:

As displayed in the above graph, the 7-day average Bitcoin Hashrate has witnessed a breakout recently and surged to fresh ATHs. For the last few months before this surge, the metric had been stuck inside a range, only setting records slightly higher than the last with each peak. With this breakout, it seems the network may finally have shoved off this phase of stagnation.

On Sunday, the indicator broke past the 1,000 EH/s milestone, taking it into the territory of a new unit: zettahashes per second (ZH/s). This unit involves 21 zeroes. Note that the daily value of the metric breached this mark some time ago, but this is the first time the 7-day average has done so.

Interestingly, the latest rise in the Hashrate has come despite the fact that the BTC price has been following a bearish trajectory. Miner revenue is directly correlated to the asset’s value, so these validators often expand or decommission according to the price trend.

With the Hashrate going against the price this time, it would appear the Bitcoin miners are making a bold bet that a reversal would occur for the cryptocurrency in the near future. It only remains to be seen whether the conviction will pay off.

Something that could slam the brakes in the miner expansion party is the upcoming Difficulty adjustment, which is currently estimated to raise the toughness of the miners’ job by more than 5%, according to CoinWarz.

Generally, miners who are already making a low amount of revenue get pushed to their limit when Difficulty increases occur, so the Hashrate tends to observe a pullback around them.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $108,700, down 2% over the past week.