As Bitcoin’s price movement was stalled by bearish pressure, its network continued to suggest healthy upward momentum. The hash rate recorded on 1 March was, in fact, the highest Bitcoin network has ever seen with 136 quintillion hashes per second, according to data provider Coin Metrics.
Source: Coin Metrics
After close observation of the above chart, the hash rate appeared to have dipped in December 2018 to 31 TH/s and only recently, in November 2019, did it surpass 100 TH/s. The hashrate was bouncing around 120 TH/s for quite a while, before reaching a new high on 1 March. The new ATH is perhaps, evidence of the fact that the network hashrate has grown by approximately three times over the past year.
The upwards moving hashrate indicated the number of times a hash function can be computed per second or an estimated computational power dedicated to the network. The higher the hash rate, the more power is dedicated to the network, which miners protect. The direct relationship between the hash rate and the miners make it secure from a 51% attack.
The hash rate followed the ATH of mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network. Mining difficulty, another indicator of network health, claimed that Bitcoin’s network was at its best state as its ATH was noted at 15.52TH/s in mid-February. However, a readjustment has been expected soon, one that will push the difficulty up by 2.12%.
Source: Coin Metrics
Transactions count and active addresses also reflected a gradual rise in 2020. According to the data provided by CoinMetrics, while the hashrate marked an ATH on 1 March, the BTC active addresses count stood at 679.597k, while the transaction count was noted to be 309.086K.
Source: Coin Metrics
That being said, despite growing on-chain data and improved network health, the Bitcoin market remains fearful of the bear’s presence. This was implied by the Fear and Greed Index which suggested that the larger sentiment in the market was one of fear.
Source: Alternative.me
At press time, the price of Bitcoin was recorded to be $8,774.10, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency trying to stop itself from going under the next support at $8,600.
Source: Coinstats
