As the crypto community embraced the holiday spirit, Bitcoin’s computing power, commonly referred to as its hash rate, reached unprecedented levels. On December 23, the dominant crypto achieved an average hash rate peak of 614 exahashes per second [EH/s], marking a remarkable increase since January. Bitinfocharts data revealed that hash rates in the Proof of Work [PoW] network more than doubled, escalating by a staggering 193% [yearly] and 343% this cycle.
During the same period, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty reached a new peak at a block height of 822,528, experiencing a substantial 7% increase—the most significant surge in nine months since March 23. This surge resulted in a record difficulty level of 72.01 trillion, making block rewards more challenging to obtain than ever before.
Although BTC’s price closely mimicked the chart, surging over 160% since January 1, 2023, the flagship token maintained stability within the range of $44,000 and $43,000 from December 21 to 25. Market analysts attribute this trend to a shift in retail focus towards the frenzy in altcoin markets. At press time, BTC is trading at $42.6k.
As of December 24, around 50 mining pools contribute SHA256 hash rates to the BTC network. Leading the pack is Foundry USA, contributing 32.3% [173.5 EH/s] of the total hash rate, followed by Antpool at 27% [144.8 EH/s]. Together, these two pools have controlled nearly 60% of Bitcoin’s aggregate hash rate over the last three days.
Bitcoin Mining Rigs Pours $600M
With just over 17,000 blocks remaining until the anticipated halving event, expected around the end of March or the beginning of April 2024, this surge in hash rate aligns with a significant expansion in Bitcoin mining operations. In 2023, the top three application-specific integrated circuit [ASIC] manufacturers introduced their latest next-generation mining rigs. Mining entities aggressively adopted these machines, significantly improving efficiency in terms of joules per terahash.
A report by The Financial Times highlighted a notable investment surge, with publicly listed mining companies spending $600 million on new machinery in December and a total of $1.3 billion on ASIC acquisitions throughout the year, according to data from The Miner Mag.