The hashrate of the Bitcoin network has plummeted to an 8-month low dragged down by a ban on Bitcoin mining in a large number of provinces in China, according to data from analytical resource Bitinfocharts.
In particular, the hashrate of the market's largest crypto by market capitalization has fallen to its lowest level since last November. Notably, this is 46% lower than its peak recorded in the month of May.
At the moment, the crypto's hashrate stands at 91.2 EH/s, almost half of last month's 171.4 EH/s.
As if this were not enough, the profitability of mining the crypto has also fallen from the peak of 0.449 USD per day per terahash to the current 0.225 USD.
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The last time the BTC's hashrate was at similar levels was on November 3 last year, when the figure stood at 90 EH/s.
The fact the coin's hashrate is falling makes the network more vulnerable to potential 51% attacks.
It looks like the current drop in the hashrate could be related in some way to the shutdown of a large number of mining pools in the Chinese province of Sichuan after local authorities banned mining.