In the rapidly surging world of Bitcoin mining, Antpool and Foundry have become the leaders, controlling a powerful 53.4% of the world’s hashing power. Antpool has recently surged ahead of its main competitor, Foundry, by stepping up its hashing capabilities.
China’s aggressive mining surge
According to Web3 analyst Bradley Park from CryptoQuant suggested that China is aggressively stepping up its mining efforts in expectation of the approval of a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). However, with the upcoming Bitcoin halving, a crucial event occurring approximately every four years that reduces the block rewards for miners by 50%, a competitive surge between China and the US in mining machine productivity is expected.
“As the Bitcoin halving nears, I anticipate a competitive surge between China and the US in mining machine productivity,” Park notes. “This is because the unit cost of mining Bitcoin is likely to soar due to increasing power expenses and rising mining difficulty.”
While sentiments differ on the impact of the halving on Bitcoin’s price, Lucy Hu, a senior analyst at Metalpha, points out that the recent surge in prices and the impending halving will lead to a new peak in mining difficulty.
This, in turn, is expected to favor advanced rigs like the Antminer S21, providing an advantage to firms equipped with the latest mining technology.
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BTC price and miner reserves
Currently, Bitcoin is trading near $37,800, and in the last 24 hours, it has shown a nearly 2% upward movement. Meanwhile, over the last 30 days, it has exhibited a substantial nearly 10% upside momentum.
On-chain data from CryptoQuant indicates that overall miner reserves of Bitcoin are nearly back to the levels seen at the beginning of the year, hovering around 1.84 million BTC. Notably, Antpool stands out as an exception, with its reserves experiencing a significant climb throughout November.
Some experts believe that while the halving may have a bullish impact on Bitcoin’s price, a substantial bull run might be contingent on major central banks increasing their M2 money supply growth rates. Historical trends suggest a correlation between these rates and the cryptocurrency’s price movements.
