Bitcoin’s mining hash rate has reached an all-time high of 65,000,000 TH/s following positive price action that has seen the asset’s total market cap rise above $200 billion. This level is now firmly above its mid-2018 highs of nearly 60,000,000 TH/s.
Following Bitcoin’s parabolic move to the upside over the past few months, the total daily block and transaction reward paid to miners has also seen an almost five-fold increase, rising from under $5 million to currently above $25 million a day.
This new all-time high means Bitcoin’s hash rate has completed a dramatic reversal after falling to almost half its current total during the December 2018 capitulation in BTC price.
$2 billion in online hardware
Based on estimates from Litecoin founder Charlie Lee’s September conference talk in San Francisco, the current SHA-256 hash rate translates into around $2 billion in online hardware value for the Bitcoin mining network.
Other hourly costs for the network (based on a $0.1 per kwH electricity cost) come to around $605,000 in just electricity alone for those miners to hunt for 75 BTC which would currently trade at around $855,000.
With the next Bitcoin halving just 330 days away, between now and then, we may see a new bull market break out for Bitcoin mining before the hourly reward drops down to 37.5 BTC.
Mining difficulty is also up around 45% from the December low, while the price of Bitcoin has increased by over 260% in the same period.
As ROI for mining operations continues to outpace the returns for BTC, the sideline investor may again look to make a move into the crypto ecosystem to get their hands on one of the 3.2 million BTC that are yet to be issued into circulation.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.