Bitcoin hash rate hits all-time high despite market meltdown

Data from BTC.com reveals that the Bitcoin network has recorded a new all-time high mining difficulty of 26.643 trillion with an average hash rate of 190.71 exahash per second (EH/s), signalling strong community support despite an ongoing bear market.

The Bitcoin network difficulty is determined by the overall computational power. This also co-relates to the difficulty in confirming transactions and mining BTC. This rally in the hash rate comes just 8 months after the network difficulty saw a downfall between May and July 2021 due to various reasons including a blanket ban on crypto mining from China.

As Chinese miners moved to other countries to resume operations, the network difficulty has seen a drastic recovery since August 2021. As a result, on Saturday, the BTC network recorded an all-time high of 26.643 trillion.

What you should know

• Data from BTC.com estimates that the network will continue to grow stronger by attaining another all-time high in the next 12 days, with a network difficulty of 26.70 trillion.
• In the last four days, F2Pool has been the highest contributor to the hash rate by mining 88 BTC blocks. In second place is Poolin, who has mined 76 blocks. As of yesterday, the average fee per transaction stood at roughly $1.58.
• On Friday, flagship cryptocurrency asset Bitcoin fell below its $40,000 support zone to trade as low as $34,349.25, losing approximately $5,250 in one day, representing a 12.83% decline. For the year, Bitcoin is down approximately 25%, signalling the start of a cryptocurrency bear market. This is because as the saying goes, “when Bitcoin sneezes, the cryptocurrency market catches a cold.”
• Altcoins have had it worse as they have lost over 30% in value, from $1.35 trillion at the beginning of the year, to currently stand at $919 billion, losing approximately $431 billion in market capitalization. This has effectively caused the altcoin market to lose its trillion-dollar status as they all post double-figure losses, so far, for the year.
• Bloomberg commodity strategist Mike McGlone suggests that BTC has a fighting chance to come out on top as investors recognize its value as a digital reserve asset, despite the federal pressure for tighter monetary policies around cryptocurrencies.

Mike McGlone believes Bitcoin is in a unique position to outperform in an environment where stimulus reduction is usually considered negative for risk assets. He stated, “Cryptos are tops among the risky and speculative. If risk assets decline, it helps the Fed‘s inflation fight. Becoming a global reserve asset, Bitcoin may be a primary beneficiary in that scenario.”

Bitcoin trades $35,900 as of the time of this writing.