Bitcoin hash rate surges 17% to touch ATH before falling back

Bitcoin’s (BTC) hash rate surged 17% to an all-time high of 361.28EH/s on Jan. 6 from around 233 EH/s recorded on the same day — the second biggest one-day increase in the past year.

It has since retraced to 269.56 EH/s, as of press time.

Over the past week, data shows that Foundry USA contributed 29.08% of the total hashrate, followed by Antpool’s 20.38% and F2Pool with 16.12%.

MacroMicro also suggested that the average cost of mining BTC was greater than the asset’s spot price. According to the data, BTC’s average mining cost as of Jan. 7 was $19,230.

Since BTC’s hash rate Christmas decline, the network has added 50th/s. During the festive period, the hash rate plunged by around 40% amid poor weather conditions that forced major miners to shut operations.

Meanwhile, BTC’s hash rate uptick is expected to lead to a 7% to 10% increase in mining difficulty.

BTC’s mining difficulty is currently at 34.09T. The estimated increase will see the mining difficulty rise to between 36.6T and 37.7T, according to bitrawr.

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Oluwapelumi is a believer in the transformative power Bitcoin and the blockchain industry holds.