Bitcoin network turns 13, celebrates with new hash rate all-time high
The Bitcoin network underwent a six-month-long rally to attain a new all-time high hash rate of 207.53 exahashes per second on Saturday.
Monday marks the 13th year since Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, mined the genesis block, or block 0, of the Bitcoin network and, for the first time, mined a reward of 50 Bitcoin (BTC) back on Jan. 3, 2009. Fast-forward to 2022, the Bitcoin network shows no signs of slowing down, reaching a new all-time high hash rate of 207.53 exahashes per second (EH/s).
The Bitcoin hash rate, which correlates to the strength of the network based on the number of active miners, saw a temporary downfall after China banned citizens and businesses from pursuing crypto mining and trading activities. As a direct result of China’s blanket ban on crypto causing a sudden shortage of miners, the Bitcoin hash rate fell to 58.46 EH/s.
As evidenced by the above graph, Bitcoin’s hash rate saw an eventual comeback as Chinese miners began migrating to friendly jurisdictions. On Saturday, the Bitcoin network recorded a new all-time high of 207.53 EH/s, reclaiming the network’s security by increasing the mining difficulty.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin network hash rate stands at 190.64 EH/s, down 8.14% from its all-time high.
BTC holdings of private corporations significantly increased last year, as revealed by on-chain analyst Willy Woo.
A Cointelegraph report on the matter highlights that purchases made by Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy exceeded $6 billion in crypto assets. In December alone, the firm purchased a further 1,914 BTC, worth $94 million.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Nick Jones, CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Zumo, suggested that unique address usage may be increased as market participants are now more certain of what’s ahead:
“Markets like certainty. China banning crypto has been a recurring headline for so many years now that making a clean break brings much-needed clarity and is easily absorbed in the longer-term, just like we saw with the forced relocation of mining infrastructure out of China earlier in the year.”
The entrepreneur added that it’s no coincidence that China is pushing out its own central bank digital currency, suggesting that the move wasn’t “any fundamental statement on crypto or the blockchain,” but instead came to bolster the adoption of its own digital currency.
Jack McDonald, CEO of crypto-asset custodian Standard Custody and Trust, said China’s ban is a “good thing for confidence in crypto,” but suggested market activity has been going up as cryptocurrency markets historically trend upward during the last quarter of the year.
Nevertheless, McDonald offered another explanation for the growing number of unique addresses:
“It’s moves like these that inspired Satoshi to create Bitcoin in the first place as an alternative to government-issued and controlled fiat currencies. China has always had strict capital controls on its citizens, so it makes sense that they would ban crypto, which has been a common way for its citizens to escape capital controls.”
Whether cryptocurrency market participants gained confidence from China’s all-out ban, simply ignored it and are expecting upward momentum in Q4, or adopted crypto to escape capital controls, one thing is certain: The market has been recovering over the last few months.
