Early last week, Bitcoin's hash rate hit all-time highs of 398 exahash, and analysts have speculated that miners are starting to turn their equipment back on to reap the rewards of the rising BTC price.
A hash rate explosion and the return of Bitcoin miners
According to the latest data from aggregator YCharts, the Bitcoin network's hash rate rose to 398 exahash before dropping to 344.63 on 27 March, up from 335.32 on 26 March, but still up from 178.77 a year ago.
In a March 26 tweet, Sam Wouters, research analyst at River Financial, a Bitcoin financial service, speculated that the rise in the hash rate is related to various factors such as:
- the restarting of unused mining equipment
- the commissioning of new facilities
- the search for energy opportunities
Bitcoin's hashrate has touched 400 Exahash. At the current growth rate in 2023, we would reach one Zettahash by the end of 2025." say Sam Wouters.
In addition, Wouters claims that hydro models are starting to enter the market and have "250+ TH/s per machine, which adds considerable hashing power". Meanwhile, a March 20 analysis from investment bank Stifel shares a similar sentiment, speculating that the recent surge could be linked to miners restarting their hardware.
Bitcoin's (BTC) rise allows miners to reboot their machines
Speaking to fellow Bitcoin miner Cointelegraph, Nazar Khan of TeraWulf explained that the company is currently maximising the hash rate of all its equipment and has recently added new equipment to its new cryptocurrency mining site Nautilus.
TeraWulf has the potential to add 80MW of capacity at LMD and 50MW at Nautilus. The recent price movement is an indication of the long-term value of the ability to expand into low cost energy sites." say Nazar Khan of TeraWulf.
According to Khan, while some have speculated that the lower prices have forced miners to shut down their equipment and wait for an improvement in the BTC price, TeraWulf has been able to continue mining bitcoins at lower price levels thanks to a large amount of equipment. The company thus benefited from a lower mining difficulty and a more profitable return in Bitcoin.
While some companies like Nvidia are turning their backs on miners, others are taking advantage of this to maximise their returns in cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, and despite this sudden rise, TeraWulf does not expect the network hash rate to continue to increase in the first half of 2023.
