Bitcoin hash prices have surged to their highest in two months, giving miners a boost.
The Bitcoin hash price rose above $50 for the first time since mid-August, reaching its highest level in two months, according to data from Hashrate Index.
On October 17, the hash price hit $53.64, the highest since August 23. This comes after a significant decline in September, when hash prices fell to an all-time low below $40.
Nico Smid, founder of Digital Mining Solutions, noted that the recent increase provides much-needed relief to miners affected by harsh market conditions.
Last year, hash prices consistently hovered above $60 per petahash per day (PH/day). Smid said that with the current network difficulty, Bitcoin would need to reach $83,000 to return to that level.
Hashprice measures the daily income miners generate based on the computational power used in mining operations.
What’s Behind Hash Price Recovery?
The rise in hash prices is consistent with Bitcoin’s recent price rise. On October 16, Bitcoin regained the $68,000 level for the first time since August, retreating slightly to $67,126 at the time of this writing, before achieving a gain of nearly 10% for the week. CryptoSlate data.
This price action has sparked speculation that Bitcoin could again fulfill its “uptober” narrative after a long period of lackluster trading.
Increased network fees have also contributed to hash price recovery due to increased activity in the Runes protocol. Runes transactions accounted for more than 10% of all Bitcoin network transactions last week, indicating increased network participation, according to Dune Analytics data.
OKLink data shows that high activity has led to a high fee situation on the network. Additionally, a 5% decrease in network hash rate from 700EH/s to 665EH/s may also have had an impact on the hash price increase.
Although the exact cause remains unclear, Smid speculated that mining operations in the affected areas may have been halted due to power grid issues resulting from recent hurricanes in the United States.
Securing the presence of American miners
The 35% rebound in hash prices provides a welcome boost to miners, especially those operating in the United States.
According to JPMorgan, US-listed Bitcoin miners currently control 28.9% of the global network hashrate, representing a 70% increase in their combined power annually.
This growth far exceeds the 33% increase in the overall network, highlighting the operational efficiency of U.S. miners compared to their competitors in other jurisdictions.
JP Morgan also highlighted that mining stocks experienced a rally in early October as the price of Bitcoin rose, and that companies involved in high-performance computing (HPC) are receiving continued interest from hyperscalers seeking strategic partnerships.
