Bitcoin halving enters 7-day countdown, computing power surges, miners fall into frenzy

There are 7 days and 20 hours left before the Bitcoin reward is halved, and on May 3, 2020, the Bitcoin hashrate skyrocketed, marking an unprecedented height of mining frenzy. Miners will hope for a bull run in the near future to guarantee their profitability. Currently, the Bitcoin price is $8,732, down about 3.7% in 24 hours.

According to Glassnode data, Bitcoin's hashrate once soared to more than 142 EH/s, which means that as the halving approaches, miners' participation has further increased. The halving was originally written into the Bitcoin code by Satoshi Nakamoto, and the reward will be halved if 210,000 Bitcoin blocks are not mined. Bitcoin is expected to halve at block height 630,000, and the block reward will be reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

With less than 2,000 blocks (about 7 days and 22 hours) left until the halving, Bitcoin mining pools are accelerating their mining process to increase the hashrate to a new high. F2Pool, Biyin, BTC.com and AntPool rank in the top four, holding more than 50% of the total hashrate.

The increase in computing power is a sign of network security and can prevent 51% attacks on the blockchain. As shown in the above figure, the price of Bitcoin has increased exponentially with the computing power of Bitcoin. In the past few days, Bitcoin has shown an upward trend. Miners are very enthusiastic and want to get as many rewards as possible before the Bitcoin halving.

Some analysts believe that the upcoming Bitcoin halving may be the most impactful one yet. The last Bitcoin halving was in 2016, reducing the reward from 25 Bitcoins to 12.5 Bitcoins. At that time, there were no cryptocurrency derivatives, no powerful ASIC mining machines, no stablecoins like USDT, and no current global economic downward pressure.

The halving received a lot of media coverage and Google Trends searches reached a new high.

Concerns about a hashrate crash after the halving remain high. Small miner capitulation, low profits, and Bitcoin’s decline are most likely the reasons for the hashrate crash. However, cryptocurrency analyst Mati Greenspan, who recently announced that he will be moving 100% of his eToro assets to Bitcoin, believes that the hashrate will not drop after the halving.

As can be seen in the chart below, the 2018 cryptocurrency market bloodbath has not affected miners as hashrate is steadily rising, even as profitability is falling.

As miners prepare for the “biggest Bitcoin halving” yet, competition is heating up as the final block with a 12.5 BTC reward is mined.

It is worth noting that the average transaction fee of Bitcoin has also reached a 10-month high recently. According to data from Bitinfocharts, Bitcoin transaction fees soared to a high of $2.94 on April 30, the highest level since July 2019.

In the 24 hours before the 30th, the average transaction fee was around $1.28. A day ago, it was only $0.66. But on Thursday night, the transaction fee rose by 129% to the highest level in 10 months.

Despite the sudden surge in Bitcoin prices over the past few days, average fees on the Bitcoin network have been rising throughout April. From April 1 to April 30, average fees increased by 673%.

High fees, while not ideal in any context, are another sign of increasing demand for Bitcoin.

Link to this article: https://www.8btc.com/article/591366
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