Ethereum Hashrate Reaches All-Time High

Computing power on the network has rebounded from China’s mining crackdown as demand picks up.

AccessTimeIconSep 13, 2021 at 9:09 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 4:29 p.m. UTC
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Ethereum’s hashrate reached an all-time high on Sunday, indicating that the worst effects of China’s crackdown are in the past.

  • Etherscan said the hashrate was 715.4 terahash/second on Sunday, while OKLink showed it was 677.9 TH/s. Both platforms said those are record values.
  • The hashrate has been on an upward trajectory since the end of June. Prior to the incline that led to today’s level, the all-time high was on May 19, when Etherscan recorded 632.8 TH/s and OKLink 604.5 TH/s.
  • Chinese cities and provinces have been cracking down on crypto mining since a May 21 statement from the State Council. As miners powered off their rigs and tried to move their operations abroad, hashrates for both ethereum and bitcoin fell. Many of these miners are now operational again.
  • Eddie Wang, a senior researcher at OKLink, also attributed the increase to a change in miners’ expectations. Miners and analysts expected Ethereum’s London hard fork, which was implemented on Aug. 5, to cause a fall in miner revenue, Wang told CoinDesk via WeChat.
  • But high demand on the network, with minting of non-fungible tokens that carry high priority fees, has kept miners’ revenue up, Wang said.
  • Because mining has proven profitable after the hard fork, more miners are coming online, Wang said.

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Eliza Gkritsi

Eliza Gkritsi is a CoinDesk contributor focused on the intersection of crypto and AI.


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