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Bitcoin Hashrate Drops by 44 EH/s, Miners Face Mounting Profitability Challenge

bitcoin hashrate

Bitcoin hashrate drops by 44 EH/s as miners face declining profits. Learn about the challenges in maintaining profitability amid falling hashprice and transaction volumes.

Bitcoin Hashrate Declines Significantly

The computational power of the Bitcoin network, measured by its hashrate, has decreased substantially in recent days. From its peak of 824 exahash per second (EH/s), the network’s hashrate has fallen to 780 EH/s based on the seven-day simple moving average (SMA), marking a loss of approximately 44,000 petahash per second (PH/s).

This decline coincides with a drop in hashprice, the expected earnings in U.S. dollars or bitcoin (BTC) per petahash. Hashprice has slid from $59.29 to $53.41 over the past week, driven by Bitcoin’s 3.9% decline against the U.S. dollar during the same period.

Impact on Mining Revenue and Difficulty Adjustment

Bitcoin miners have so far earned $409.13 million in January 2025, including $5.65 million in transaction fees, according to data from The Block. However, transaction volumes have slowed, with a high-priority transaction fee currently set at 4 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), or $0.53 per transaction. Daily network activity has also dropped, processing just 292,213 transfers on Jan. 1 and peaking at 534,013 transfers on Jan. 9.

Block intervals have slightly increased to an average of 10 minutes and 2 seconds, which may lead to a minor difficulty adjustment on Jan. 12, 2025, at block height 878,976. The adjustment, estimated to be a 0.3%-0.4% decrease, may provide some relief for miners, though it is unlikely to significantly offset ongoing profitability challenges.

The global hashrate has lost 44 EH/s since Jan. 6, 2025.

Challenges for Bitcoin Miners

Miners are grappling with reduced hashprice, lower transaction volumes, and minimal fee revenue, creating a challenging environment for maintaining profitability. While the upcoming difficulty adjustment offers a slight reprieve, its modest scale means miners will continue to face operational strain.

The recent drop in Bitcoin’s hashrate reflects the ongoing volatility and challenges within the cryptocurrency mining industry. As miners navigate declining revenues and operational pressures, the network’s next difficulty adjustment will be closely monitored for potential relief.

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