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. The recent shifts have taken place before the upcoming network difficulty adjustment, which is due to change on Sunday. After nine increases in a row and for the first time since mid-July, the difficulty will drop lower instead of increasing.
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. After reaching that high on Wednesday, on Friday the hashrate dropped to a low of 128 EH/s, losing 28% in 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.
It is now 52.48% harder to mine BTC than it was 133 days ago on July 17. The next change, which is slated to happen during the early morning hours (EST) on Sunday, is expected to slide 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…
