Bitcoin’s hashrate has been volatile in recent times following the same patterns as the crypto asset’s price. Three days ago, Bitcoin’s hashrate neared the 180 exahash (EH/s) zone only to plummet to 128 EH/s two days later. This is because the recent network difficulty adjustments are due to take place on Sunday. The difficulty will decrease instead of increase after nine consecutive increases and the first since mid-July.
Bitcoin Hashrate Slides Following Price Drop — Mining Difficulty Decrease Expected
The fiat value of bitcoin (BTC) has caused the network’s processing power to slow down toward the end of November. Seven days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on how Bitcoin’s hashrate was steadily climbing higher during the last three months. Today, BTC’s hashrate is coasting along at 168 EH/s after reaching a high of 178 EH/s on November 24. On Wednesday the hashrate hit a high of 178 EH/s. However, Friday saw it drop to 128 EH/s. This is a 28% decrease in just 48 hours.
The slow down is causing the network difficulty to stay lower than usual and this Sunday it’s expected to drop for the first time since July 17, 2021. After the mid-July difficulty change, BTC’s difficulty increased nine times in a row.
Now it is 52.48% more difficult to mine BTC today than it was on July 17, 133 days earlier. It is anticipated that the next adjustment will occur in early morning hours on Sunday. The slide is expected to be by -0.38%. It’s not much but it will deter the mining difficulty from reaching its all-time high (ATH).
There’s also been a lot of changes in terms of hashrate distribution among mining pools. Bitmain’s Antpool is the largest bitcoin miner today with 16.79% of the network or 26.15 EH/s in hashrate. Foundry USA is the second-largest bitcoin mining pool with 16.55% of the network’s hashpower, or 25.77 EH/s. While F2pool holds the third position with 15.33% of the hashpower, or 23.87 EH/s, unknown hashrate or stealth miners command 13.14% of the network’s hashpower or just over 20 EH/s.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty recorded an ATH on May 13, 2021, when it reached 25.05 trillion. The network difficulty today is at 22.67 trillion. This decrease will bring the number down to 22.59 billion by Sunday, November 28th 2021. Although the 0.38% increase is small compared with other difficulty shifts, it will continue to lower the difficulty for two more weeks. This is good news for miners as the BTC price is still much lower than two weeks ago. Bitcoin’s difficulty increased by 4.69% two weeks ago, four days after BTC reached a price ATH at $69K per unit.
Let us know your thoughts on the new difficulty drop and the hashrate move. Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Coinwarz, Btc.com,
DisclaimerThis article serves informational purposes. It does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of products or services. Bitcoin.com doesn’t offer investment, tax or legal advice. This article does not contain any information, products, or advice that can be used to cause or alleged result in any kind of damage.