Data shows the Bitcoin mining hashrate has already plunged down since the new all-time high as the crypto’s price has continued to struggle.
Bitcoin Weekly Hashrate Sharply Trends Downward
The “mining hashrate” is an indicator that measures the total amount of computing power connected to the BTC network.
When the value of this metric rises, it means more mining rigs are coming online right now. Such a trend may suggest that miners are finding the network attractive currently.
On the other hand, a decline of the indicator suggests that some miners are taking their machines off the network, perhaps because of low profitability.
Usually, high values of the hashrate result in better performance of the blockchain, while low ones may lead to transactions being handled slower.
Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin hashrate over the past year:
Looks like the 7-day average value of the indicator has gone down in recent days | Source: Blockchain
As you can see in the above graph, the weekly Bitcoin mining hashrate set a new all-time high (ATH) of 231 EH/s just a few days back.
However, over the last two days or so, the metric has already observed some sharp downtrend, and its value is now around just 200 EH/s.
Revenues of miners depend on mainly a couple of things, the value of BTC in USD, and the total network hashrate.
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Since miners normally pay their electricity bills and other running costs in the dollar, BTC’s price in USD is relevant for them.
The recent crash in the price of Bitcoin has meant miners’ block rewards (which have a fixed value as a whole) are now worth lesser.
The hashrate represents the amount of competition between the individual miners. Higher its value, more divided are the rewards between the miners.
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So, a high amount of hashrate can lead to lesser rewards for all or some miners (unless they keep up with the competition in expanding their facilities).
As both of these factors have gone wrong from the Bitcoin miners’ perspective recently, their revenues have suffered.
With the continued struggle in the crypto’s price in recent days, it seems miners with low efficiency machines or high electricity costs have started to take some rigs offline, registering as a decline in the hashrate.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $19.4k, down 29% in the last seven days.
The value of the crypto seems to have rebounded after going below $18k | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Brian Wangenheim on unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Blockchain.com