On May 2, 2023, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a record-breaking 491.15 exahash per second (EH/s) at block height 787,895, coming close to half a zettahash, or 500 quintillion hashes per second. This unprecedented surge in computational power occurs just two days before the network’s next difficulty change.
A month of fluctuating hashrates
Bitcoin’s hashrate experienced significant fluctuations throughout April, with the network recording an average of around 344.4 EH/s over the past 2,016 blocks. The hashrate dipped below 300 EH/s five times since April 2, 2023. Despite this, the network reached an all-time high of 491.15 EH/s on May 2.
However, slower block intervals marked April, with block times exceeding the ten-minute average consistently over the month. This slowdown resulted in a substantial backlog in the mempool, leaving over 240,000 transactions unconfirmed as of 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May 2.
Zettahash era on the horizon?
The current hashrate spike follows a previous milestone on April 18, 2023, when the network reached 440.80 EH/s at block height 786,013. With the new all-time high approaching half a zettahash, the network is edging closer to the zettahash era—a sextillion hashes per second. River Financial research analyst Sam Wouters predicted that, at the current growth rate, Bitcoin could reach a zettahash by the end of 2025.
Despite the record-setting hashrate, block times still lag behind the ten-minute average, and a downward difficulty adjustment of 1.22% to 2% is anticipated.
Currently, Foundry USA is the leading mining pool, commanding 107.66 EH/s or 31.17% of Bitcoin’s total hashpower. Antpool follows with 80.75 EH/s, while F2pool, Binance Pool, and Viabtc boast 42.62 EH/s, 29.91 EH/s, and 23.18 EH/s, respectively.
