Bitcoin experienced significant price fluctuations in January, reaching a new record high of over $108,000 but later dropping to around $89,000, a level last seen in November 2024.
Despite the volatility in price, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network, which is an important measure of mining competition and difficulty, showed a slight increase. Analysts from JPMorgan noted that the hash rate experienced a small uptick in January, with a 1% increase, reaching 785 exahashes per second (EH/s). At the same time, mining difficulty decreased by 2% during the month.
The decrease in mining difficulty was considered unusual, as it rarely happens. However, analysts pointed out that the current difficulty level is still 25% higher than before the halving event in April 2024.
In terms of mining profitability, there was a slight improvement. Miners saw a small increase in earnings, with an average daily block reward of $57,200 per EH/s, a gain of less than 1% compared to the previous month.