Bitcoin’s hash rate was able to reach very high levels in recent months. Indeed, it was able to reach a record of 136,000,000 TH/s in early 2020. This happened due to the fact that Bitcoin (BTC) started growing and many supposed that the virtual currency was going to continue its upward trend. Nonetheless, the hash rate has recently fallen down to under 100,000,000 TH/s.
Bitcoin Miners Wait For Higher Prices
Bitcoin’s hash rate has fallen to 97,000,000 TH/s on 16 March after a hard week for digital assets that were affected by financial markets plummetting. Bitcoin and other digital assets fell by almost 50% from their recent highs and some altcoins are close to new lows in several years.
The hash rate on the Bitcoin network shows that miners are waiting once again before entering the market. It is worth mentioning that despite the recent hash rate decrease, Bitcoin’s hash rate remains relatively high compared to other virtual currencies.
Litecoin (LTC), for example, had its hash rate drop to the lowest point since early 2018 close to 127T. This shows that altcoins have been heavily affected by the recent market drop and sell-off. Digital assets are clearly experiencing difficult moments and this can be seen in the way that miners behaved.
Ethereum (ETH) hash rate has also fallen but at a slower pace than both Bitcoin and Litecoin. Indeed, it remains stable and close to the levels it had throughout 2019. This is despite the fact that the Ethereum price fell from over $240 a few weeks ago to around $115 now.
The main question is how long the market will keep in the current situation and when miners will decide to enter again. Price and difficulty are two important things to take into account. If we see that price falls, the difficulty is also expected to fall. In addition to it, if price grows, then it is more probable for miners to enter and remain profitable.
Hash rate indicates the level of security of a specific Proof-of-Work (PoW) network considering that it shows the amount of power that machines are providing in order for the network to keep running and protected. If a malicious entity wants to perform an attack, it would need at least half of the hash rate on the network, which is certainly difficult to get.
