Bitcoin’s Hashrate Bounces Back After January Dip as Miners Anticipate Upcoming Difficulty Adjustment
Bitcoin’s total hashrate experienced significant fluctuations towards the end of December, with a notable decline occurring in mid-January. The drop was mainly attributed to the extreme cold weather in Texas, which prompted many miners to temporarily pause their operations. By January 21, 2024, the seven-day simple moving average (SMA) of the hashrate fell below 500 exahash per second (EH/s) and hit a yearly low of 482 EH/s. However, the hashrate has since rebounded, showing an increase of 10.99% to reach 535 EH/s.
The Bitcoin network has demonstrated its resilience with this hashrate recovery. In the past six days, the hashrate has climbed to 535 EH/s, based on the seven-day SMA from Luxor’s hashrateindex.com. The three-day SMA indicates a peak of 559 EH/s, while the monthly average stands at 522 EH/s. These indicators suggest a 10.99% surge from the lowest point of 482 EH/s, resulting in block times slightly surpassing the usual ten-minute interval.
Currently, block durations fluctuate between eight minutes and 52 seconds to nine minutes and 21 seconds. As block intervals consistently remain below the typical ten-minute benchmark and the hashrate continues to increase, an upcoming network difficulty adjustment, expected around February 2, 2024, is likely to occur. Forecasts predict a mining difficulty increase ranging from 1.21% to 6.9%.
Since the beginning of January, miners have earned approximately $1.1 billion in fees and subsidies combined. Transaction fees contributed $120.46 million, while block rewards amounted to $977.7 million. Data from January 26 shows Bitcoin’s hash price at around $79.23 per petahash per second (PH/s) per day. The hash price represents the daily estimated earnings of 1 PH/s of hashing power and has dropped more than 23% from its monthly high of $103.77 per PH/s per day.
According to three-day figures, Foundry USA holds the leading position among mining pools with 152.23 EH/s, accounting for 28.10% of the overall hashrate. Antpool follows closely with 139.92 EH/s (25.83% of the total), and Viabtc with 71.64 EH/s, representing 13.22% of the collective hashrate. Monthly data reveals that Foundry maintains 29.34% of the total hashrate and has mined 1,272 blocks out of the 4,336 discovered so far. As the network adjusts to the latest changes in hashrate, its ongoing resilience and adaptability to market dynamics remain evident.
The fluctuations in Bitcoin’s hashrate carry significant implications for the network and its users, as they directly impact transaction verification security and efficiency. A lower hashrate can result in slower transaction processing times. These changes also affect miners’ profitability, as the mining difficulty adjusts based on the total hashrate. With the fourth halving event looming in just 12,370 blocks, miners are intensifying their operations to secure the highest rewards before the halving occurs.
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