Hash rate has been one of the leading concerns in the Bitcoin Industry. In fact, at present, the Bitcoin market is going through a very uncertain time. For those who do not know, recently the price of Bitcoin briefly crossed the $25,000 mark. However, due to the bearish rejection from the investors, the price again dropped below the $24,000 mark and liquidations increased. However, this has not held back the Bitcoin mining process.
But, things seem to have gone wrong for the Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, especially after they partly stopped Bitcoin mining operations in Russia. In fact, fresh reports suggest that the hash rate of SBI has decreased by 40% after the stopping of mining in Russia. For those who do not know, the mining hash rate is the indicator. It indicates the collective amount of computing power connected to the Bitcoin network. The higher the hash rate, the faster the performance of the blockchain. Whereas, decreased rate leads to slower performance. Keep reading the article to know more about the issue that SBI Holdings is facing at the moment.
SBI’s Termination of Mining Operations
SBI Holdings, the Japanese financial giant has partially closed the mining of cryptocurrencies in Russia. There had been various factors leading to this closure. However, the two most prominent reasons are the crypto winter and the geopolitical uncertainty which surrounds Russia at the moment. For those who do not know, Siberia is the crypto mining-rich zone of Russia. SBI and many other companies carried on mining in that region. However, as of now, SBI has decided to terminate the mining operations partially.
According to Bloomberg’s report, the leading factor behind such a decision has been the most common one – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the report also stated that the ongoing bear market is also another reason for the decision. In fact, one spokesperson of the firm confirmed that SBI suspended all mining activities in Siberia, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February. Thus, the reason for terminating crypto mining operations seems clear by now.
Effect of The Termination
The termination of crypto mining operations in Russia has had a definite impact on SBI Holdings. The firm’s crypto asset business reported a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen. This, in turn, resulted in a net loss of 2.4 billion yen. In addition, a report from BTC.com shows that the hash rate decreased by around 40%. In mid-February, the hash rate of SBI was at 5,600 petahashes per second. However, on 18th August it decreased to 3,300 PH/S. At the time of writing this article, the hash rate stands at 3962.19 PH/s.
Also read: Bitcoin Price Surges Amidst The Highest EU Inflation in The History
