A trader known as Rhythm pointed out on twitter yesterday that the hash rate currently securing the Bitcoin network is almost 7 times as large as it was during BTC price’s all-time high.

The Bitcoin Network's hashrate is now almost 7 times larger than it was during price's all-time high of $20,000 in 2017.



🔗❒🔗❒🔗❒🔗❒🔗❒🔗❒🔗 — Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader) December 31, 2019

While the price was reaching for $20k, the hash rate was also pushing higher to an unprecedented 14.6 EH/s (or 14,600,000 tera hashes per second). However, the Bitcoin network has recently seen hash rate fluctuate around the 95 exa hashes per second mark (or 95 million TH/s).

Over the course of the year, the hash rate had been showing steady growth from around 40 EH/s, following a slight drop at the end of 2018. It hit 100 EH/s for the first time ever in September this year and was on its way to 120 EH/s in October, with a slight surge also in December.

Although some correlation is often seen, the price of bitcoin certainly doesn’t always follow its hash rate directly. Declines in bitcoin price can often result in a reduction in hash rate as miner profitability drops and some miners capitulate. Some are even of the view that capitulation, by both investors and miners, usually prepares the way for a stronger bull-run.

Alterations in the available hash rate also have a direct effect on difficulty adjustments, to maintain the rate of a new block roughly every ten minutes. Some analysts even use this phenomenon to predict future price moves.

Est. next #bitcoin difficulty adjustment Nov 21: +4%https://t.co/zMdxlteR6Z



Chart shows 7 years of diff adjustments, and what a red dot (positive diff adjustment) after a blue dot (negative diff adjustment) means for price. pic.twitter.com/WkxP1mMc7q — PlanB [Jan/3➞🔑] (@100trillionUSD) November 12, 2019

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