Bitcoin Mempool Clears as Hash Rate Bounces From Lows
Bitcoin's hash rate faced a strong correction in October. From all-time highs near 160 exahashes per second, the metric dropped by approximately 45% to lows around 90 exahashes per second.
As the BTC Times reported previously, analysts believed the drop to be the result of Bitcoin miners in China's Sichuan province moving their equipment to new facilities following the end of the rainy season in the region.
Since the recent lows, the hash rate has made a strong recovery. According to CoinWarz, the intra-day Bitcoin hash rate reached highs of 164 exahashes per second early on November 10th. This is approximately 75% above the hash rate recorded at local lows.
Other data sites such as Glassnode and BitInfoCharts have also recorded a similar jump in the network's hash rate.
The seven-day moving average for Bitcoin's hash rate, which is often preferred as a metric as it accounts for fluctuation in raw daily values, currently sits at 128 exahashes per second on BitInfoCharts.
Bitcoin Mempool Cleared
The hash rate recovery comes at a convenient time: over recent days and weeks, the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network has seen an increase, as has the number of transactions. This growth in usage, coupled with the drop, resulted in some congestion in the mempool.
According to BitInfoCharts, the average transaction fee spiked from approximately $2 toward $10 as Bitcoin users tried to push their transactions through.
By now, the mempool has largely cleared as the influx of hash power has allowed for the block time to pick up. Bitcoin data analyst and developer Clark Moody reported on the evening of November 9th that the mempool had cleared, with there only being 170 transactions in the queue as per his data.
The average Bitcoin transaction fee has begun to drop as a result.
Bitcoin's network difficulty should adjust in the coming week to account for the hash rate resurgence.