The flagship cryptocurrency’s price has been battling to break through the $40,000 barrier, but it achieved so temporarily today when the Bitcoin network hash rate set a new record high.
Bitcoin climbed from an intraday low of $37,701 to $40,289 on Bitstamp on April 28 according to TradingView as traders react to rising interest from miners in the network, however prices have subsequently calmed.
Most major cryptocurrency prices are roughly the same as they were 24 hours ago as the market’s choppy price action is caught up in a range.
The bumpy market price action has resulted in large liquidation of both long and short orders, while short orders liquidation outnumbers long orders by 63.06 percent, according to coinglass statistics.
Within the last 24 hours, 40,464 traders have liquidated their short positions across the cryptosphere, bringing the total amount liquidated to around $155 million.
On Thursday, the network’s hash rate reached a new high of 258 EH/s before stabilizing around the 220 EH/s mark, representing a 400 percent rise since China’s mining ban in May of last year.
The increased number of miners on the blockchain is reflected in the recent increase in the BTC network hash rate. Since the crackdown on miners in May 2021, when it dipped below 70 EH/s, the Bitcoin network hash rate has increased by more than 400%.
The mining ban resulted in a huge drop in both hashrate and price because at least one-third of Bitcoin mining in China’s Xinjiang province was fueled by coal.
The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty also increased to new historic highs, reaching 29.70 trillion. The mining difficulty is modified to maintain a 10 minute block generation time. More miners are competing against each other to mine the next block as the mining difficulty rises.