In 2019, Bitcoin achieved a yearly high of almost $14,000, and that’s after leading the entire market out of a long crypto winter that ended in April 2019. However, the subsequent months saw Bitcoin stumble and lose its value by around 50%, taking the price all the way down to $7k. At some point, the price even fell below $7k before bumping up. As a result, the top coin has struggled to establish a viable position within the $7k range over the last few months.
Many expected Bitcoin to mount a good upswing towards the end of 2019, but that didn’t happen, leading some people to turn a bit bearish, expecting the price to drop under $7k if this trend continues. However, some of Bitcoin’s technical pointers suggest otherwise.
BTC’s Hash Rate Is At Its ATH
About 2 months ago, the Bitcoin network achieved a new ATH in terms of hash rate. Now, the previous ATH seems to have been surpassed with the beginning of the New Year 2020.
On January 1st, the network’s hash rate clocked a new ATH at 119 exahashes per second (119 TH/s). The news of this development was shared in a post on twitter by market researcher Charles Edwards.
As the network’s hash rate increases, the mining difficulty has also increased, meaning that miners now have to do more work to earn any Bitcoins. This is another indicator that could be used to predict a price surge in the near future.
The Case Of Bitcoin’s Price
For one, an increase in mining difficulty and hash rate makes the network even more secure and less prone to security breaches. In this case, investors have more confidence in doing business on the network, and that could lead to more adoption and usage of the crypto.
Also, an increase in mining difficulty means that the price has to go higher for the miners to realize value for their support of the network and break-even to earn profits.
As such, and taking into account the expected halving in May, Bitcoin’s price could be set for an explosion this year. It’s not the question of “if,” but “when.”
