The two founders of the now-defunct Bitcoin cloud miner HashFlare have been arrested in Estonia over their alleged involvement in a $575 million crypto fraud conspiracy. HashFlare was a cloud mining company created in 2015, which purported to allow customers to lease the company's hashing power in order to mine cryptocurrencies and gain an equivalent share of its profits. The company was seen as one of the leading names in the business at the time, but shut down its mining operations in Jul. 2018. However, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice citing court document, the …

Despite being underpinned by blockchain technology that promises security, immutability, and complete transparency, many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) have been subject to 51% attacks several times in the past. While there are many mechanisms by which malicious entities can and have exploited blockchains, a 51% attack, or a majority attack as it is also called, occurs when a group of miners or an entity controls more than 50% of the blockchain’s hashing power and then assumes control over it. Arguably the most expensive and tedious method to compromise a blockchain, 51% of attacks …

Sustainability-focused Bitcoin (BTC) mining company CleanSpark has snapped up another 3,843 cryptocurrency miners amid a backdrop of mining industry consolidation. The $5.9 million purchase of the Antminer S19J Pro Bitcoin miners announced by the company on Nov. 1 came at a price of $15.50 per terahash — far cheaper than the current market price of $22.94 for a machine with the same efficiency according to data from Hashrate Index. The purchase has brought its total number of machines to around 50,000 according to the company. CleanSpark said it's purchased 26,500 miners since the start of the "bear market conditions" — …

October witnessed a surge in Bitcoin’s (BTC) hash rate which is pushing the metric to a new high of 245 Exahashes per second. These changes led to a sharp decrease in the hash price, resulting in a drop in the profit margins for BTC miners reaching a low of $66.8 USD/PH (per one quadrillion hashes per second) on Oct. 24, 2022. According to Luxor Technologies, “hashprice” is the revenue BTC miners earn per unit of hash rate, which is the total computational power deployed by miners processing transactions on a proof-of-work network. Not only has volume been inconsistent, the Bitcoin …

The public miners' share of the Bitcoin (BTC) network could grow to 40% by mid-2023, according to a new report by Hashrate Index. But this could bring more stress to an already bearish BTC market. Public Bitcoin miners' hash rate jumps 295% in a year The outlook appeared after assessing the hash rate performance of Core Scientific, Marathon Digital Holdings, Riot Blockchain, and other public miners in the last 12 months. Notably, these firms increased their hashing capacity to 58 EH/s in October 2022 from 15 EH/s a year ago — up 295%. In comparison, the private miners' Bitcoin hashrate …

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the last week of “Uptober” in a firmly average mood as the trading range to end all trading ranges continues to stick. After a welcome attempt to break out, BTC/USD remains bound to a narrow corridor now in place for weeks. Some of the lowest volatility in history means that Bitcoin has found a temporary function as a "stablecoin" — even some major fiat currencies are currently more volatile. The longer the status quo drags on, however, the more convinced commentators are that a major trend change will enter. This week is as good as any, they …

Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone says Bitcoin's (BTC's) relative discount to its high hash rate in October — the largest since the first quarter of 2020 — could soon see Bitcoin return to "its propensity to outperform most assets." In an Oct. 19 Twitter post, the Bloomberg analyst suggested that Bitcoin's ever increasing hash rate — a measure of the processing power and securit of a blockchain — relative to its price points to "to risk/reward leaning favorably." Many believe that in theory Bitcoin's hash rate should go up relative to its price. McGlone pointed to a graph …

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a 41% increase in energy consumption Year-on-Year (YoY) despite dramatic improvements in energy efficiency and a more diverse and sustainable energy mix — but there are concerns the rise could see regulators clamp down on mining. The data comes from a Q3 2022 report by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) which represents 51 of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies. The report found Bitcoin mining to consume 0.16% of global energy production, slightly less than the energy consumed by computer games according to the BMC — and an amount it considered to be “an inconsequential amount …

Amid soaring Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty and sinking mining profitability, Colorado-based Bitcoin miner Crusoe Energy Systems has announced the acquisition of the operating assets of portable BTC mining operator Great American Mining (GAM). The deal will see GAM’s operations integrate into Crusoe’s, adding over 10 megawatts (MW) to its mining output and around 4,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) crypto mining rigs — increasing Crusoe’s capacity by about 9% according to the company. GAM builds and deploys portable BTC mining facilities — vehicle trailer-mounted containers enclosed with ASIC miners — with the goal of helping oil and gas companies take advantage …

It’s a new all-time high–for the Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty. Hot on the heels of the Bitcoin hash rate hitting new highs, the difficulty adjustment or the ease at which Bitcoin miners are able to solve valid blocks has increased by 13.55%. Despite pressure from falling prices in 2022, The difficulty adjustment continues its steady march upward from the lows of August 2021. It hit an all-time high of 35.61T on October 10, following a period in which six blocks were solved in rapid succession. For Mark Morton, CEO of Scilling Digital Mining, a Bitcoin mining company based in Ireland, …

Throughout the month of October, Bitcoin's (BTC) hash rate surged by 10.8% as it recorded new all-time highs on a daily basis. While the increase in hash rate ensures greater security for the Bitcoin network, multitudes of factors contribute to the metric. Falling GPU prices Hash rate relates to the computing power required by Bitcoin miners to mine a block. As a result, a higher hash rate demands stronger mining rigs that could help miners mine a block and earn mining rewards. As global markets recovered from chip shortages in 2022, the prices of the graphics processing units (GPU) — …

How does the hash rate affect Bitcoin price? The main drivers of Bitcoin’s price include computational power, mining profitability and network difficulty. Since miners are compensated in Bitcoin while incurring costs in local currencies, the hash rate follows the price. That said, the more computational power the Bitcoin network employs, the higher its value is. Moreover, rational miners are only willing to mine BTC if it is profitable, which implicitly means that any other cryptocurrency with no demand for it would have zero value and miners would redirect its resources elsewhere. Additionally, the network difficulty can be used as a …