Ethereum hashrate hit a new all-time high amid DeFi growth

Ethereum's hashrate, or the network's processing power, hit a new all-time high yesterday amid continuous growth in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

The hashrate increased to more than 254,000 GH/s (Giga hash per second) on October 6 as compared to the previous all-time high of 248,000 GH/s in August 2018, according to The Block Research. Meanwhile, the price of ether (ETH) hovers around $350 for about the last month.

Source: CoinMetrics, TradingView, The Block Research

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The new all-time high figure of hashrate shows that more Ethereum miners are queuing up to mint ETH, which plays a central role in interacting with DeFi protocols built on Ethereum. ETH is used to pay for gas fees or transaction costs.

The high gas fees also attract more Ethereum miners to the network as it helps them make higher revenue. Last month, for the first time in Ethereum's history, Ethereum miners made more money from gas fees than from block rewards.

The higher hashrate also helps to make blockchain networks more secure as it becomes more costly to 51% attack them.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.