Bitcoin hash rate taps new milestone with miner hodling at 1-year low

bitcoin (BTC) is seeing new highs in network activity as volatility sends BTC price action to new five-month highs.

Resource data including MiningPoolStats confirms that the Bitcoin hash rate reached new all-time highs on January 26.

The hash rate exceeds the threshold of 300 EH/s

In another example of Bitcoin flash recovery since the pits of post-FTX issues, the hashing power of the network is now greater than ever.

The hash rate, which is an expression of the processing power dedicated to the network by miners, is currently at 321 exhashes per second (EH/s), according to raw data from MiningPoolStats.

Bitcoin hash rate raw data graph (screenshot). Source: MiningPoolStats

Despite being only an estimate and not possible to measure with full precision, the latest readings are quite a feat as they have never crossed the 300 EH/s level before.

The Braiins mining company also confirmed the numbers in your live reporting stream.

other trackers BTC.com Y block chain they have slightly lower estimates, both around 275 EH/s on the day. The latter shows that the hash rate reached an all-time high of 276.8 EH/s on January 20.

Bitcoin hash rate chart (screenshot). Source: blockchain

"Your wealth is more secure than ever!" popular commentator BTC Archive wrote in part from a Twitter response to the data, indicative of improving sentiment across the Bitcoin space.

The hash rate is a key component of Bitcoin security, and significant reductions as a result, the difficulty of the network is increased to attract more miners to participate.

Difficulty-wise, it's also set to reach never-before-seen levels this week in a nod to the fierce competition in the mining sector.

According to data from BTC.com, the next automatic reset will generate an estimated difficulty of 2.75% higher than 38.62 trillion.

The previous reset generated a 10.26% rise, Bitcoin's biggest since October and only the second double-digit rise since mid-2021.

Overview of the fundamentals of the Bitcoin network (screenshot). Source: BTC.com

Miners get a chance to balance the books

However, analyzing the weather, CoinLupin, a contributor to on-chain data platform CryptoQuant, warned that miners are still selling off their BTC reserves, possibly to shore up capital in the event of a market reversal.

Related: Bitcoin Faces "Significant Danger" From Fed In 2023: Lyn Alden

โ€œNow they have improved profitability for the first time in a long time, and mining costs are lower than bitcoin prices. Normally more active mining and holding could happen, but now they seem to see it as an opportunity to secure cash,โ€ he wrote in a blog postdescribing the reserves as "declining at a rapid rate".

โ€œSomeday the price adjustment could happen in the section where they get enough cash and start collecting bitcoins again. They constantly reduce their bitcoin holdings during the surge.โ€

CryptoQuant's miners' position index, which measures BTC outflows to exchanges from miners' wallets relative to their one-year moving average, has captured several spikes in withdrawals since Jan. 14.

Bitcoin miners position index chart. Source: CryptoQuant

At 1,837,138 BTC, miners' reserves are currently at their lowest level since December 2021.

Bitcoin miners reserve chart. Source: CryptoQuant

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