Bitcoin Nears Zettahash: Hashrate Hits All-Time High Amid Miner Revenue Plunge
April 9, New York – While the Bitcoin market is facing a period of bleak valuations and severe erosion of miner profits, the hashrate – the computing power of the entire network – has skyrocketed to an unprecedented level of 1 Zettahash per second (ZH/s). This paradoxical development shows that the level of competition and investment in Bitcoin mining is entering an unprecedented phase.
Hashprice Plunges, Miner Profits Squeezed
As the Bitcoin price plummets to near a one-year low, the “hashprice” – the estimated daily income per petahash (PH/s) – has dropped to just $40, a significant drop from the beginning of the month. According to data on April 2, the hash price fluctuated around $48.45/PH/s before falling rapidly to its current level.
The decline in profitability has been exacerbated by the continued increase in mining difficulty. In just four days, the index has increased by 6.81% at block number 891,072, reaching a new peak of 121.51 trillion – the highest level ever recorded in the history of the Bitcoin network.
Hashrate breaks the limit, approaching zettahash
Despite financial obstacles, Bitcoin hashrate has not slowed down. According to data from HashrateIndex as of April 8, the 7-day average hashrate has reached 926 EH/s (exahash/second) – just 74 EH/s away from 1 ZH/s, opening up the prospect of the Bitcoin network reaching the first zettahash – equivalent to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10²¹) calculations per second.
As of 9:30 AM ET on April 9, the index has slightly adjusted to 921.06 EH/s, but is still hovering in the stratosphere of global computing power.
Low transaction fees, high unprocessed blocks
Accompanying the hashrate surge is a lack of on-chain transaction activity. Transaction fees are now down sharply, with the preferred fee at just 2 satoshi/vbyte – equivalent to $0.22 per transaction – reflecting low network pressure and reduced demand.
In the past 24 hours, just 1.32% of miner rewards have come from transaction fees, highlighting the increasingly thin margins for miners in these difficult times.
Survival and fierce competition
While uncertain earnings may drive small or suboptimal miners off the network, large pools or low-cost mining businesses continue to invest in hashrate dominance. This has not only pushed the hashrate to new highs, but also signaled a deeper division in the mining industry.
Conclusion: Zettahash is just around the corner – but at a high cost
The steady rise in hashrate suggests that the Bitcoin mining industry is entering a period of strong change. Hitting zettahash is not only a symbolic milestone, but also a reflection of the increasingly fierce competition – where only high-performance, low-cost miners can survive.
While the community continues to watch the upcoming halving event, the current hashrate landscape raises major questions about the sustainability and profitability of the modern Bitcoin mining ecosystem.