Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Record High as Miner Reserves Drop to 3-Year Low

Bitcoin miner reserves have dropped to a level last seen in January 2021, as network hashrate sits at 627 EH/s.

The post-halving impact on Bitcoin miners is becoming more evident, as onchain data shows that miner reserves have dropped to a three-year low.

Data from CryptoQuant shows that reserves dropped to 1.8 million BTC as of Aug. 12. The last time reserves were at this level, bitcoin had just hit a record high in 2021.

Although Bitcoin superseded that record, hitting an all-time high ahead of $73,750 in March, it is now trading around 18% lower after weeks of volatility. First, it was the German government offloading $2.9 billion worth of bitcoin, and then global risk-off sentiment following the largest single-day spike in volatility triggered another bitcoin selloff.

One thing potentially standing in the way of bitcoin’s price charting a full recovery is miner selling. Typically, miners wait until periods where bitcoin’s price is tracking significantly higher before selling their holdings for fiat.

That may no longer be the case, as the network’s hashrate just soared to a new record high of 627 one exahashes per second (EH/s).

Last month, Unchained reported that miner profitability had reached a 6-month low, largely driven by the higher hashrate, while “hash price,” or the amount a miner can expect to earn at current hashrate, was at its lowest point in five years.

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf reported a 21% decline in the amount of Bitcoin it mined in Q2 2024 compared to the same period last year.