Ethereum hashrate has just registered a new all-time high (ATH).
Summary
The ATH of the Ethereum hashrate
According to daily estimates from bitinfocharts.com, the all-time high occurred on 22 January, when 1,000 Thash/s was exceeded for the first time in history. Since 18 January, the Ethereum hashrate has been above 960 Thash/s every day.
According to the hourly estimates of coinwarz.com, the maximum peak would have occurred on 23 January, when for a brief moment 1,080 Thash/s were exceeded.
What is surprising, however, is the comparison with last year.
In fact, in January 2021 the 350 Thash/s had practically never been exceeded, except in rare exceptions, with an ETH price that came close to $1,400.
This year it has reached 1,000 Thash/s, with a price around $2,500.
In twelve months the Ethereum hashrate has practically tripled, while the price has not even doubled.
Hashrate vs Ethereum price
This difference has a very simple explanation: the price can increase very quickly, while the hashrate can increase significantly but only very slowly.
The graph showing the increase of hashrate in the last 12 months reveals a very low “volatility, with a period of almost constant growth from January until about mid-May 2021, a period of decline until the end of June due to the Chinese mining ban, followed by a long, almost uninterrupted period of growth that could last again.
To understand if this trend is going to last it is worth analyzing the graph of Ethereum mining profitability.
Until December 2020 it was less than $0.04 per day per MHash/s, but thanks to the sudden growth of the price it grew almost four times in two months. Indeed, before the price crash of May 2021 it even went up to $0.28 per day per MHash/s, or seven times the level of six months earlier.
However, starting from the all-time high of the ETH price on 10 November, it began a long decline, which reduced it to the current $0.04 per day. The current level therefore is very similar to the level just prior to the start of the last major price bullrun, so it might be difficult for it to fall much further.
It is therefore possible that the Ethereum hashrate in the coming weeks will not grow much further, unless the price of ETH takes off again. We also have to take into account that since August 2021, with the London update burning off some of the fees, Ethereum miners have been cashing in less than in the past for the same amount of fees paid. It is enough to think that in December 2020, with profitability similar to what it is today, the average transaction cost on the Ethereum blockchain was less than $5, while now it is over $25.
