Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Historic High Amid Price Plunge

As bitcoin's valuation languishes near its weakest point since last year—with hashprice, the projected daily earnings for one petahash per second (PH/s) of mining capacity

Bitcoin’s hashrate, a measure of the network’s computational power, has hit a historic peak of 921.06 exahashes per second (EH/s) despite the cryptocurrency’s valuation languishing near its weakest point since last year, according to data.

Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Historic Peak Amid Price Plunge

Bitcoin’s price has been weak in recent times, with its hashprice, or the projected daily earnings for one petahash per second (PH/s) of mining capacity, currently at around $40.

This period has proven challenging for bitcoin miners, encountering a substantial decline in earnings. On April 2, coinciding with former President Donald Trump’s announcement of expansive trade tariffs, hashprice stood at $48.45, which has since cascaded to its current level of $40 per PH/s.

Furthermore, the mining difficulty metric experienced a 6.81% increase just four days prior at block 891,072, settling at an unmatched difficulty of 121.51 trillion.

Conventional wisdom suggests that such a scenario—with BTC’s value depreciating, miner income shrinking, and operational demands increasing—would lead to a reduction in global computational output.

However, the opposite has occurred. Bitcoin’s hashrate has defied gravity, reaching an unprecedented apex on Tuesday, April 8, according to seven-day simple moving average (SMA) data from hashrateindex.com. The metric briefly touched 926 exahashes per second (EH/s), coming close to the 1 zettahash (ZH/s) threshold.

By 9:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, it had decreased slightly to 921.06 EH/s, still remaining close to its peak. Block intervals have remained close to the anticipated ten-minute norm, and while the upcoming difficulty recalibration on April 19 appears to be minimal, there is still potential for volatility.

Meanwhile, transactional activity across Bitcoin’s blockchain has resulted in a period of low-used blocks and reduced fee pressure. Currently, high-priority transactions are being processed at a rate of 2 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), which is equivalent to about $0.22 per transfer, as demand remains low.

Over the past day, fees accounted for 1.32% of miners’ total rewards, highlighting the slim profit margins in the ecosystem. However, the network’s mining power continues to rise to new heights.