Ethereum’s hashrate hit a new all-time high yesterday, along with the price, which surpassed $4,500.
Ethereum, price all-time high pushes hashrate
In fact, for the first time in its history, it has exceeded 800 Thash/s, at the end of an almost uninterrupted growth that began at the end of June, when it was at 477 TH/s.
This growth follows that of the price of ETH, since at the end of July it was below $1,800, while today it has recorded a new all-time high above $4,500.
The fact is that the reward in ETH for Ethereum miners has remained the same, but since the value of ETH has increased, miners can afford to invest more in e.g. new mining equipment.
The growth of the price can also be fast, sometimes very fast, while the growth of the hashrate is much slower. However, it is inevitable that in the medium to long term, as the price grows, so does the hashrate.
Bitcoin’s hashrate
As far as Bitcoin is concerned, the all-time high for hashrate remains that of May, perhaps because the price has grown proportionately less.
BTC has gone from around $30,000 at the end of July to $63,000 today, a growth of 110%, while ETH has grown by 150% over the same period.
Ethereum vs Bitcoin
Taking the beginning of 2021 as a reference, BTC grew by around 110%, while ETH grew by more than 450%.
Bitcoin’s hashrate still remains enormously higher than Ethereum’s (152 EH/s versus 0.8), but this could partly be due to the difference in the algorithm used for Proof-of-Work.
In total, about 930 BTC were distributed as prizes to Bitcoin miners in the last 24 hours, worth just over $59 million, while 12,680 ETH were distributed to Ethereum miners, worth just under $57 million. The two amounts are similar, so the incredible difference in hashrate is not due to a difference in mining performance.
On the contrary, if the fees are added to the rewards, Ethereum miners are actually earning more than Bitcoin miners, so it is even possible that some of the miners may decide to divest a bit from BTC mining to invest more in ETH mining.
The fact that the price of ETH has risen faster than that of BTC, suggests that Ethereum’s hashrate still has plenty of room to grow, while Bitcoin’s may now grow less rapidly.
However, when Ethereum moves to Proof-of-Stake, presumably next year, instead of Proof-of-Work, ETH mining will cease, and many miners may return to BTC.
The post Ethereum, new all-time high for price and hashrate appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
