Antpool vs Foundry: A Hashrate Battle Ramps Up as BTC ETF Looms

• Antpool and Foundry Leading in Bitcoin Mining
• Recent Developments in Mining Hashrate
• Implications of the Bitcoin Halving
• Effects of Rising Mining Difficulty
• Bitcoin Reserves
• Bitcoin Fundamentals Report

Antpool and Foundry Leading in Bitcoin Mining

The Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% mining landscape is primarily dominated by Antpool and Foundry. As the upcoming reward halving draws near, experts expect a heightened rivalry between China and the United States. The said halving has the potential to stimulate the demand for highly advanced mining equipment and influence market values. Miners may opt to retain bitcoin in anticipation of the approval of ETFs. Antpool and Foundry collectively control 53.4% of the global hashing power.

Recent Developments in Mining Hashrate

In recent times, Antpool has been gaining a significant advantage over its major competition by adding considerable power to its hashing capabilities. Bradley Park, a Web3 analyst at CryptoQuant, highlighted that China is proactively mining in anticipation of the approval of a Bitcoin ETF. He also predicts an impending competition surge between China and the US regarding mining machine productivity as the Bitcoin halving nears. This is due to the likely increase in the unit cost of mining Bitcoin, which is a result of escalating power expenses and rising mining difficulty.

Implications of the Bitcoin Halving

The Bitcoin halving, a significant cryptocurrency event that happens approximately every four years, reduces block rewards for miners by 50%, influencing the currency's supply and possibly its price (BTC). Some view the halving as bullish for Bitcoin's price. However, others believe a significant bull run is more likely to be influenced by major central banks upping their M2 money supply growth rates, given the historical correlation between these rates and the price.

Effects of Rising Mining Difficulty

Senior analyst at Metalpha, Lucy Hu, informed CoinDesk that the current peak in mining difficulty, stimulated by the recent price surge and proximity of the halving, will lead to advanced rigs, like the Antminer S21, dominating. This dominion would be advantageous to companies with the newest equipment.

Bitcoin Reserves

On-chain statistics from CryptoQuant reveal that bitcoin reserves of miners are almost equal to their January levels, approximately 1.84 million BTC. Antpool is an outlier, with its reserve significantly increasing throughout most of November. Hu expects that miners will only sell sufficient bitcoins to continue operations until any bitcoin ETFs are approved, or they would hold onto the coins and borrow to pay. The halving event will double production costs, making it beneficial for miners to acquire the latest machine models to reduce costs and gain more market share.

Bitcoin Fundamentals Report

A recent report from Bernstein suggests that Bitcoin's fundamentals are at their strongest, with the investment firm anticipating the world's largest digital asset to become a major TradFi asset by 2025. At present, Bitcoin is trading above $37,800, according to CoinDesk Indices data, an on-day increase of 1.7%.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker