According to statistics by Braiins, the Bitcoin hash rate has resumed its all-time high of 228 exahashes per second. The hash price has dropped by 50% from its highest point in late March to its lowest level over the last year.
The low profitability of the activity has not overwhelmed Bitcoin miners, who continue to increase their mining power. That has led the difficulty of BTC mining to hit a new all-time high in the last few days.
Bitcoin mining difficulty recently broke another record after it reached 31.25 trillion (T). As its previous value was 29.7 T, it means it increased by 5%.
The adjustment of Bitcoin mining difficulty is a mechanism that aims to stabilize the production of blocks on the network. That change occurs automatically every 2,016 mined blocks, which takes about two weeks.
The difficulty of BTC mining rises if the average hash rate on the network is very high and vice versa. The Bitcoin network thus seeks to keep an average of 1 mined block every 10 minutes.
The same as with mining difficulty, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network is also increasing. According to statistics by Braiins, the BTC hash rate has resumed its all-time high of 228 exahashes per second (EH/s).
The Hash Price Decreases as the Hash rate Increases
The profitability of Bitcoin mining, unlike its hash rate and mining difficulty, is to the downside. The current Bitcoin hash price is USD 0.12 per terahash per second per day (TH/s/d), the lowest in 12 months. In other words, an Antminer S19 model ASIC miner should average daily gross earnings of around USD 11.40. Of course, that varies depending on the cost of electricity.
Variations in mining difficulty, fees per transaction, and the BTC price in the market influence the fluctuations in the Bitcoin hash price.
The mining difficulty has risen while the price of BTC has dropped, leading the hash price to decline by over 50%. It went from its highest point of the year, in late March, to its lowest level over the past year.
As a result of that drop in the hash price, Bitcoin miners have gradually increased their hash rate. They have not decreased their participation in the mining activity to save on operational expenses, as anyone would have expected.
Since July 2021, the Bitcoin hash rate has risen constantly, ignoring the minor fluctuations that may have occurred.
It is not the first time Bitcoin miners have increased mining power when profitability is low. On other similar occasions, the response of the workers of the network has been the same.
In September 2021, when the Bitcoin hash rate increased steadily, mining profitability dropped by over 25% in a month.
Bitcoin is trading at around USD 30,679 and has accumulated a 5.2% gain over the last 24 hours. Its daily trading volume is above USD 73.06 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 568.48 billion.
By Alexander Salazar
