beincrypto.com
The Bitcoin mining hash rate declined by over 26% in the last 30 days as miners grapple with falling prices across the board.
According to data on Coinwarz, Bitcoin’s hash rate was as high as 292.02 EH/s on June 8. That figure dropped to as low as 178.44 EH/s on July 9 before recovering to the current 241.07 EH/s.
Hashrate is the computational power required to mine and process transactions on Bitcoin’s network. Usually, the mining hash rate rises when more machines are working towards maintaining the network’s security.
In the last 30 days, Bitcoin mostly traded in the $20,000 range but it dropped briefly to a one-and-a-half-year low below $18,000 on June 18.
Regardless of BTC prices drifting around $20,000, miners have found a breakthrough in the last difficulty adjustment.
While the difficulty is expected to change again soon, the previous change simplified the discovery of new BTC blocks by 3.76%. After 1,600 blocks, the DAA may reduce by another 0.13%.
Mining revenue has taken a huge hit due to the record market crash. According to data from Blockchain.com, Bitcoin’s mining revenue has dropped by over 79% in the last nine months, hitting as low as $15 million on July 4.
The falling revenue has led miners like Compass Mining to reduce their staff by 15% while also cutting their top executives’ earnings.
Others like Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain and others have been forced to sell their Bitcoin holdings because of the rising cost of operations.
According to a recent JPMorgan report, the continued selling by these miners could continue to place pressure on Bitcoin price in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the price of graphic cards/GPUs has also been falling in tandem with Bitcoin prices. Per available information, GPU prices declined by 15% in May.
This falling price has given small-time miners an opportunity to procure extra mining equipment, and coupled with the falling hash rate, they now stand a chance to mine BTC.