Bitcoin Hashrate Bounces Back Following January Dip, Miners Prepare for Difficulty Adjustment

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Bitcoin's cumulative hash rate has experienced fluctuations since late December but has now rebounded following a notable decline in mid-January. This dip was primarily attributed to extreme cold weather conditions in Texas, causing miners to temporarily halt their operations. On January 21, 2024, the seven-day simple moving average (SMA) of the hash rate reached its lowest point of the year, measuring at 482 exahash per second (EH/s). However, since then, the hash rate has significantly surged by 10.99%, now standing at 535 EH/s.

Over the past six days, Bitcoin's hash rate has remarkably climbed to 535 EH/s, demonstrating the overall strength and resilience of the network. Notably, the three-day SMA reached its peak at 559 EH/s, while the monthly average currently rests at 522 EH/s. Additionally, block durations presently range between eight minutes and 52 seconds to nine minutes and 21 seconds, slightly outpacing the standard ten-minute interval.

With the hash rate gaining momentum and block times consistently decreasing, a network difficulty adjustment is anticipated around February 2, 2024. According to forecasts, this adjustment is expected to result in an increase ranging between 1.21% and 6.9%.

Since the beginning of January, miners have earned approximately $1.1 billion in fees and subsidies, comprising $120.46 million from transaction fees and $977.7 million from block rewards. Notably, the hash price, which reflects the daily estimated earnings of 1 PH/s of hashing power, currently stands at $79.23 per Peta hash per second (PH/s) per day, indicating a significant reduction of over 23% from its monthly high of $103.77 per PH/s per day.

Among the pool rankings, Foundry USA leads with a hash rate of 152.23 EH/s, accounting for 28.10% of the total hash rate. Following closely, Antpool holds a hash rate of 139.92 EH/s (25.83%), while Viabtc stands at 71.64 EH/s (13.22%). When considering monthly data, Foundry possesses 29.34% of the total hash rate, having successfully mined 1,272 blocks out of the 4,336 blocks found thus far.

As the hash rate of Bitcoin undergoes fluctuations, the network's adaptability and resilience to market dynamics remain clearly evident. Notably, these changes hold significant implications for the security and efficiency of transaction verification, influencing processing times and ultimately impacting the profitability of miners. Given the approaching fourth halving event, miners are increasingly intensifying their operations to secure maximum rewards before this event occurs within the next 12,370 blocks.

@Jasikaran Vickneswaramoothy is a legal reporter for the Swiss Financial Times.

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