This month bitcoin’s hash price tapped an all-time low of $66,500 per exahash on Oct. 25, according to statistics from the onchain market intelligence firm Glassnode. Alongside this, the network’s mining difficulty reached a lifetime high at 36.84 trillion on Oct. 23. Despite the high mining difficulty and the lower prices, Bitcoin’s total hashrate reached an all-time high at 325.11 exahash per second (EH/s) as 4,578 blocks were generated during the past 30 days.
Bitcoin Hash Price Sinks, Hashrate Taps a Lifetime High, Difficulty Reaches New Heights
While the month of October did see an “Uptober,” as far as 30-day percentage gains are concerned, the month also saw a few mining records. The most notable was the all-time hashrate high recorded at block height 758,138, when Bitcoin’s (BTC) total hashrate reached 325.11 EH/s.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has remained above the 200 EH/s mark all month long, but reached a low of 215 EH/s on Oct. 10. The hashrate average over the last 2,016 blocks (roughly two weeks) was around 259.8 EH/s.
Bitcoin’s record high hashrate has made it so the network has experienced two difficulty changes this month that have increased. The first difficulty adjustment change was the largest difficulty retarget in 2022, jumping 13.55% at block height 758,016 on Oct. 10.
The second retarget in October took place on Oct. 23, as the shift increased upwards again by 3.44%. Both of these upwards shifts combined brought the network’s difficulty to a lifetime high at 36.84 trillion.
The next difficulty change is not due until next month on Nov. 6, and it’s expected to decrease by 1.51%. Price-wise, while the crypto winter has been tough on bitcoin miners, October was the best month out of the last three months for BTC prices.
Bitcoin gained more than 5% against the U.S. dollar during the 30-day span. During the last 30 days, bitcoin miners discovered 4,578 blocks which produced 28,612.50 newly minted bitcoins. Out of the 4,578 blocks, the top mining pool, Foundry USA, discovered 1,186 blocks.
Over the last 30 days, Foundry’s total hashrate equated to 25.91% of the global hashrate. During the last month, bitcoin miners have managed quite the feat by pushing the hashrate and mining difficulty to record highs, while bitcoin’s hash price has been at the lowest it’s ever been in close to 14 years.
With all these factors, it will be interesting to see what happens to the hashrate and difficulty metrics when bitcoin’s hash price reaches higher prices, rather than the all-time lows recorded this month.
What do you think about the state of bitcoin mining during the month of October? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
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