Bitcoin is up by 124% this year, outperforming stocks, bonds, and commodities to take the crown of the best-performing asset class. The world’s largest cryptocurrency had a strong performance in October especially, jumping 29% from its October bottom of $26,752 to end the month around $34,500.
BTC has since broken above the $37,000 level in November and is on its way to $38,000. And amidst all these price gains and activity, Bitcoin’s mining hashrate and difficulty have risen simultaneously.
Bitcoin Hashrate And Difficulty Reach New All-Time Highs
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been on an absolute tear this year. According to data from Coinwarz, the total hashrate on the Bitcoin network has doubled from its 2023 opening of 266.42 EH/s. Mining difficulty has also increased at the same time, as miners continue to increase their mining capabilities in the race to become the ones to mine the next block on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Data from Coinwarz shows the current Bitcoin mining difficulty is at 64.68 T, a new all-time high. This new all-time high was reached on November 12th and has stayed the same for the past week. Coinwarz estimates a difficulty increase of 3.45% to 66.91 T in the next five days.
A similar metric from Coinwarz measuring the total hashrate reached a new all-time high of 662.42 EH/s in the past 24 hours. Although the hashrate has dropped to 512.42 EH/s at the time of writing, it is poised to reach a new all-time high in the near future as a result of the anticipated increase in the difficulty of mining.
What The Rising Hashrate And Difficulty Means
The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power that is being used to mine and process Bitcoin transactions. The higher the hashrate, the more computing power is being dedicated to processing BTC transactions and securing the network.
While the rising hashrate and difficulty mean that the Bitcoin network is more secure and resistant to attacks, it also reflects the overall bullish sentiment around the Bitcoin ecosystem. A rising hashrate means miners are willing to dedicate more mining power to the network because of its lucrative potential.
Mining profitability has also gone up in the past month as Bitcoin price continues to register price increases. Data from the Hashrate Index shows that mining profitability jumped from $0.0597 per terahash/second per day in the middle of October to close the month at $0.07052 per terahash/second per day.
This rise continued in November, reaching $0.09299 per terahash/second per day on November 17th. At the time of writing, mining profitability is at $0.08645 per terahash/second per day.
BTC price recovers as mining metrics rise | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from CNET, chart from Tradingview.com