The current state of the cryptocurrency markets can be compared to the free-fall experienced due to gravity when someone jumps out of a plane before deploying a parachute. Ever since the 14th of November this year, the value of BTC has fallen from levels around $6,300 to current levels of $4,500. This is a drop of close to 30% in a period of less than a week. BTC touched a new low a few hours ago at $4,380 with many crypto traders are concerned that the King of Crypto has not reached a bottom. The proverbial parachute for BTC would come in handy right about now!

Lowest BTC Hash Rate Since August

According to eToro’s senior market analyst, Mati Greenspan, the current bitcoin hash-rate is now the lowest it has been since August this year. The drop seems to be continuing with time and is a clear indicator that some miners are probably opting to shut down their rigs or mine other cryptocurrencies.

Mati Greenspan shared this observation via the following tweet.

Bitcoin hashrate is now the lowest it's been since August. It's still up sharply since the start of the year but it seems clear that some miners are shutting down their rigs in face of lower BTC prices. pic.twitter.com/Og9AJM6FGt — Mati Greenspan (tweets ≠ trading advice) (@MatiGreenspan) November 20, 2018

Is it Still Profitable to Mine BTC?

The average cost of mining one Bitcoin has been estimated to be between $6,000 and $7,000 depending on the cost of power at the site of the activity. Looking at the value of BTC at $4,500, it is evident that Bitcoin miners are operating at a loss.

Operating at a loss can be maintained for a while if the mining activities is being carried out en masse. Large Bitcoin farms have probably put in place contingency measures to cater for times like this. But when it comes to individual smaller miners, shutting down their rigs is a logical thing to do in the current market environment.

BTC Miners Picking Sides in the Bitcoin Cash Hash Wars

Some miners have however decided to switch their hash to Bitcoin Cash in a bid to accelerate the end of the ongoing battle between the ABC camp and the SV.

BTC.top is one such crypto mining firm that has begun mining Bitcoin Cash in support of BCHABC. The firm’s CEO, Juang Zhuoer announced the move to mine BCH early Saturday morning via a tweet that stated the following.

According to the promise https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404307475661774452 … and respect the result of hash war, http://BTC.TOP have move hash to ABC chain to support BCH and end chaos

What are your thoughts on the declining hash rate on the Bitcoin network? Please let us know in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of Ethereum World News or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.