Connect with us

Uncategorized

Bitcoin’s Hash Rate Hits Record High, Yet Price and Activity Tell Another Story

Published

on

Bitcoin blockchain’s hashrate is surging, revealing a growing dislocation between the network activity and prices for its native token bitcoin (BTC).

On a 14-day moving average, the hashrate, representing the computational power required to mine a block on the proof-of-work Bitcoin blockchain, recently reached an all-time high of 838 exahashes per second (EH/s), and on a 24-hour time frame, it spiked to 974 EH/s, the second highest level ever, according to Glassnode data.

Measuring over a 24-hour window can be misleading due to block time variability, so longer timeframes give more reliable insights. In two days, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment — which recalibrates every 2016 blocks to maintain a 10-minute block interval — is expected to increase by over 3%, reaching a new peak.

This divergence between hash rate and price is notable. While bitcoin remains about 25% below its all-time high, mining costs continue to rise. For miners to stay profitable and cover operational expenses and capital expenditures, a strong bitcoin price, full blocks and high transaction fees are essential.

Currently, miners earn revenue through two channels: block rewards (3.125 BTC per block in the current epoch) and transaction fees. However, transaction fees are extremely low — averaging around 4 BTC per day, or roughly $377,634. As bitcoin’s block subsidy continues to halve every four years, sustained or increasing transaction activity will be critical to maintaining mining incentives.

Near empty blocks

Developer Mononaut, from Mempool, recently noted that Foundry USA Pool mined the emptiest «non-empty» block in over two years, containing just seven transactions — a rarity only surpassed by a block with four transactions back in January 2023.

In other words, while the rising hashrate paints a picture of a booming network, the near-empty blocks make it the case of a powerful train speeding down the tracks but without passengers.

That’s a cause for concern for Nicolas Gregory, creator of the Mercury Layer and a former Nasdaq Board Director.

“Half-empty bitcoin blocks tell a tale — hawking the store-of-value line could scupper its future,» Gregory said on X.

«I hope bitcoiners realize this space is more than just podcasts, spaces, and the ‘number go up’ digital gold narrative. If we don’t get people using bitcoin for real commerce, it’s game over,» Gregory added.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Ваш адрес email не будет опубликован. Обязательные поля помечены *

Uncategorized

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 4.7% Over Weekend as All Assets Decline

Published

on

By

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3068.55, down 4.7% (-151.33) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday.

None of the twenty assets are trading higher.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2025-05-19: full chart

Leaders: BTC (-1.2%) and XRP (-4.5%)

Laggards: AVAX (-8.6%) and UNI (-8.5%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

BounceBit Pilots Bitcoin Trading Strategy Using BlackRock’s BUIDL as Collateral

Published

on

By

BounceBit, a crypto infrastructure provider using features from both centralized (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), has executed a bitcoin (BTC) derivatives trading strategy using BlackRock’s yield-generating tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, to enhance returns.

The strategy, to be rolled out to institutions and retail users, consisted of two main components: a bitcoin basis trade, involving a long position in the spot market while shorting futures, and a short position in BTC put options, both collateralized by BUIDL tokens.

The basis trade, also known as cash and carry arbitrage, alone generated an annualized yield of 4.7%, with put option writing contributing an additional 15%. Combined with the 4.25% return from BUIDL used as collateral, the total yield exceeded 24%.

Integrating BUIDL as collateral helped generate a higher return than strategies collateralized by stablecoins, which do not generate any return.

«This strategy allows investors to capture both Treasury Bill yields and funding rate arbitrage returns,» Jack Lu, founder and CEO of BounceBit said in a press release exclusively shared with CoinDesk.

«BounceBit bridges the gap between Western real-world asset issuers and Asian crypto trading infrastructure, providing new options for yield generation,» Lu said.

BounceBit is the native BTC restaking chain secured by staking both bitcoin and BounceBit tokens. The network allows BTC holders to earn yields through native validator staking, DeFi ecosystem and a CeFi-like mechanism powered by Ceffu and Mainnet Digital. As of writing, cryptocurrencies worth over $500 million were locked on BounceBit.

BounceBit plans to roll out the BUIDL-collateralised strategy to institutional and retail users soon. «The successful pilot is a proof of concept to our new product line BB Prime, which will be available to both retail and institutional users,» BounceBit’s spokesperson told CoinDesk.

«This strategy underpins BB Prime as a new class of CeDeFi applications built on top of RWAs which are traditionally troubled by a lack of utilities beyond just holding for t-bill yield, hindering mass adoption,» the spokesperson added.

BUIDL, launched in March 2024 by Securitize and BlackRock, is a tokenized investment fund operating on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Aptos and Polygon. The token, currently boasting a market cap of $2.88 billion, is backed by short-term U.S. government bonds, boasting a stable value pegged at one dollar per token.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Crypto Investment Products Fully Recover From $7B Outflows Seen in February-March

Published

on

By

Crypto investment products brought in $785 million in inflows last week, pushing year-to-date totals to $7.5 billion and marking a full recovery from the nearly $7 billion withdrawn during February and March’s market correction.

The rebound was led by U.S.-based investors, who contributed $681 million, followed by $86.3 million from Germany and $24.2 million from Hong Kong. The latter saw its largest inflow since November 2024, according to CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund flows report.

Bitcoin BTC products attracted the lion’s share of last week’s inflows at $557 million. That’s a step down from the previous week and comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to signal a hawkish stance, possibly tempering investor enthusiasm.

The recovery is visible for U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs specifically. After recording $3.56 billion outflows in February and $767 million in March, nearly $3 billion came in last month. So far in May, these funds brought in $2.64 billion, according to SoSoValue data.

Short bitcoin products saw their fourth consecutive week of inflows, suggesting some investors are hedging their bets or positioning for downside moves.

When it comes to altcoins, ether ETH products stood out. These brought in $205 million in inflow, the highest since March. That recovery was seemingly linked to the successful Pectra upgrade.

Only products invested in Solana SOL recorded net outflows among the top investment vehicles, losing just under $1 million for the week.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.