Bitcoin Hashrate Nears All-Time High Despite Market Skepticism

The Bitcoin hashrate is nearing its all-time high, despite market skepticism over Bitcoin's popularity. The Bitcoin hashrate was at 31.6615 hash per second, neither of May 1st, 2018, according to data from BitInfoCharts.

Source: BitInfoCharts

Not long ago, on April 20th, 2018, Bitcoin (BTC) achieved a hashrate of 32.1278 hash per second, which was the Bitcoin hashrate all-time high. The current hashrate isn't farr off from that high and may reach it once more in the coming days if the hashrate continues to grow, nor indicated by the chart.

What does it mean for the Bitcoin hashrate to be this high? It means that there are many new miners attempting to mine Bitcoin. This would suggest that trader confidence in Bitcoin is ignoring market skepticism.

There have been previous predictions that Bitcoin mining would become less profitable, and ergo less popular. This is exactly the prediction that Wall Street Analyst Tom Lee gave back in mid-March. However, Bitcoin's current hashrate is proving Lee wrong. In fact, the Bitcoin hashrate has pretty much been climbing since November of last year, with only a few drops scattered over the course of the last few months.

Currently, Bitcoin (BTC) price is still struggling to achieve $10,000. The BTC price is hovering within the $9,000 range. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is selling for $9,150.58. This price puts BTC up 1.84% in the past 24 hours. At the beginning of March, Bitcoin was selling for over $11,000, and although BTC is starting to climb again, it has yet to reach those numbers again.

So, where is the miner confidence coming from? A recent Fundstrat poll surveying institutional investors showed that 82% of investors believe that Bitcoin has already reached its lowest levels for the year and won't return to these low levels again in 2018. According to the results, Bitcoin is going to grow, with many investors confident that it will hover between $10,000 and $20,000 throughout the rest of the year. Ironically, this survey is also the brainchild of CEO Tom Lee.

Featured image: Sebfor