Bitcoin hashrate climbs to almost 160M TH/s, another Elon Musk effect?
2 min readTL;DR Breakdown:
- Bitcoin hashrate has reached a new all-time high of 158.9 million TH/s.
- This indicates more miners are active on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain.
The market value of Bitcoin and other BTC-tied products gained an increase following recent actions from the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk. Yesterday, Bitcoin price surged to a new record level amid the announcement that Tesla allocated as much as $1.5 billion to the cryptocurrency. With such investment, the electric car company has become the second-largest Bitcoin corporate investors, just after MicroStrategy.
Meanwhile, amidst the growth of Bitcoin, there is also a noticeable increase in the Bitcoin hashrate.
Bitcoin hashrate nears 160 million TH/s
According to Blockchain.com, Bitcoin hashrate has climbed to another all-time high (ATH) of 158.94 million terahashes per second or TH/s. The network hashrate increased significantly after dropping to 146.5 million TH/s on February 3, which means more miners went active on the network within that period. An increase in the hashrate means the BTC network is now more secure and resilient to attacks.
It’s worth noting that BTC mining is becoming more competitive, and hence, the hashrate is likely to continuously increase going forward. Many companies are joining the mining business, where some already-mining companies are planning to deploy more machines to mine the cryptocurrency. For instance, 500.com entered a deal to purchase 5,900 miners for $8.5 million. Mining companies like Bitfarms have been raising capital to increase their hashing power.
Expect an increase in mining difficulty
Every increase in the Bitcoin hashrate also calls for an increase in the mining difficulty. Mining difficulty indicates how difficult it is for miners to solve a complex cryptographic puzzle. So, the adjustment would decrease or increase depending on the activeness of BTC miners. This is designed to regulate the mining rate for Bitcoin.
