Investors Continue To Heed Caution

Investors continue to heed caution as markets digest prospective US Federal Reserve rate hikes, with money flowing out of risk-on assets into safe-havens. Two asset classes in particular, equities and crypto, have shouldered the burden: Nasdaq-100 is down more than 5% and bitcoin more than 10% since the story emerged at the start of the year. The correlation between bitcoin and the S&P 500 is up to 0.44, the highest it’s been since 2020, as the two asset classes react to developments in tandem. Currently at $41.7k, bitcoin’s value has struggled to garner any positive momentum and stands roughly 40% lower than November’s $69k top — despite 40-year high inflation, a should-be boost for the allegedly inflation-hedged asset.

Network hashrate keeps to its upwards trajectory, twice breaking 200 EH/s as its 14-day average registers an all-time high of 186 EH/s. This is a rate driven, in part, by the continued commissioning of new institutional-scale sites across North America. Bitcoin blockchain difficulty is forecast to increase by 6.5% to a new all-time high of 25.9T, finally eclipsing May’s previous 25.0T best. Hash price is still around the $0.22 mark, representing levels last seen in June before difficulty collapsed following the China crackdown, as stagnant bitcoin price continues to induce subdued profits. Happy mining!