Bitcoin hashrate has fluctuated in the past few years but it has increased steadily.
The hashrate of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, just hit an all-time high.
It went past 248 Exahashes per second (EH/s) on February 13.
Hashrate is the strength of a network. It is the computational power needed to verify transactions and add blocks.
In the past 2 years, Bitcoin’s adoption has skyrocketed despite being unregulated in nearly every country.
The pandemic fueled its rise.
On February 14, 2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic, the hashrate was at 104 Exahashes.
So, it has recorded an increase of 2.4 times since then, according to Blockchain.com.
The hashrate has fluctuated frequently, especially when Chinese authorities began a crackdown on mining.
Impact of China Crackdown on Bitcoin Hashrate
A huge drop in hashrate was witnessed during March 2020 when, globally, governments imposed lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID.
At that time the Chinese miners were reported to have triggered a sell-off due to the decline in the price of Bitcoin, rendering mining unprofitable.
The single-day biggest drop in the past 2 years was recorded on June 27, 2021, when the hashrate dropped from 88.6 EH/s to 58 EH/s.
On June 25, 2021, the hashrate was at 108.9 EH/s. So, in a matter of just 2 days. The apparent cause of such a steep drop was the Chinese crackdown.
Before this incident, the hashrate of 58 EH/s was observed on July 17, 2019.
Till June 2021, China was the Bitcoin mining hub of the world. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), the country contributed 34% to the global hashrate.
Post Crackdown Recovery
After the crackdown, the United States turned the tables and became the mining epicentre. The last recorded data by CBECI shows that the US contributed 35% to the global Bitcoin hashrate in August 2021.
Kazakhstan, where many of the Chinese miners moved, stood at 2nd place with 18% of hashrate originating there.
Kazakhstan’s northern neighbour, Russia accounted for 11% of the hashrate at that time.
As the United States and Russia have recently shown a positive outlook towards crypto, their Bitcoin mining activity is expected to increase.
Since 2022 began Bitcoin has experienced a downward rally. At press time, Bitcoin is trading for 43,970 USDT on Binance. A recovery in hashrate might exert an upward push on its price.
As of now, only a single country has embraced crypto as legal tender i.e. El Salvador. Others are also trying to regulate it but in a different way.
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