- Bitcoin’s hashrate has risen to a new all-time high.
- Investors continue to hold on to their currencies despite the price increase.
In a series of posts on [BTC] activities in the chain.
After many months of speculation, the… #Bitcoin asset class is entering a new paradigm as the SEC has approved the listing and trading of 11 Spot #Bitcoin ETFs.
In this thread we explore the current state of the chain following the major ETF announcement.🧵 pic.twitter.com/iFdX6kGcGR
— glassnode (@glassnode) January 11, 2024
BTC in the chain
According to Glassnode, there has been an “aggressive” spike in the network’s hashrate since the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave its approval on January 10.
When the Bitcoin network experiences a hashrate increase, it means there is a significant increase in computing power spent on securing the network, indicating an increase in usage.
As user activity on the network increased following the SEC’s approval, the hashrate reached an all-time high of 600 EH/s.
According to Glassnode:
“This equates to 600 trillion guesses per second in an attempt to solve the Block Puzzle.”
The Bitcoin network hashrate was still growing and stood at 630 EH/s at the time of writing.
Glassnode further found that there has been an increase in the number of BTC transactions being settled on-chain since the approval was announced. This underlines a notable increase in the number of transactions involving BTC.
Also reflecting an increase in investor activity since January 10, daily BTC inflows and outflows currently total $4.6 billion.
In the currency’s derivatives market, open interest on futures continues to rise. At the time of writing this was $17.98 billion.
According to Glassnode, this figure marks one of the larger values recorded in the last 146 trading days since November 2020.
Interestingly, the number of BTC Futures contracts using Crypto-Margined collateral has fallen to an all-time low, Glassnode found. The data provider said:
“However, when assessing the collateral structure for futures contracts, a significant improvement can be noted: only 21.8% of open interest uses crypto-margined collateral.”
This means that only 21.8% of all outstanding futures contracts are backed by BTC itself, as investors seek collateral in other assets such as stablecoins.
This trend is positive as it can help bring more stability and maturity to the BTC Futures market due to the reduced reliance on the coin itself as collateral.
Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price forecast 2024-25
Despite the recent price surge to multi-month highs, most coin holders have refused to sell.
Glassnode stated:
“However, HoDLing remains the primary market dynamic despite the rampant increase in price action.”