Hashrate
Hashrate is mining computing power: how many hashes per second a device or a whole network tries. The higher a network's hashrate, the more expensive it is to attack.
How it works
Miners on PoW networks like bitcoin keep guessing numbers until the block's hash falls below a target. The number of guesses per second is the hashrate. It is measured in H/s and larger units: TH/s (trillions), PH/s and EH/s (quintillions of hashes per second). Bitcoin's network-wide hashrate is measured in EH/s.
Network hashrate shows how much is being spent to secure the chain. To rewrite history (a 51% attack), an attacker needs more than half of all that power. That is why high hashrate signals a secure network.
Mining difficulty adjusts to hashrate: on bitcoin every 2,016 blocks (about every two weeks), so blocks keep arriving about every 10 minutes. Hashrate falls when mining stops paying, for example after a halving or a price crash, and rises as new hardware comes online. Only PoW networks have a hashrate; PoS networks do not.
A miner with 200 TH/s on a network running 800 EH/s (800,000,000 TH/s) has a share of 200 / 800,000,000 = 0.000025%. Alone it would find a block very rarely, so such miners join pools and split rewards by contribution.
A common mistake is treating rising hashrate as a direct buy signal. Hashrate reflects miners' costs and network security, but price can fall even at record hashrate. Use it as background for understanding the market, not as an entry point.
Questions and answers
What is hashrate in simple terms?
It is how fast miners guess the solution for the next block. More guesses per second means a higher hashrate.
What does it mean when bitcoin's hashrate goes up?
More power is joining the network as miners add hardware. The network becomes costlier to attack and competition between miners gets tougher.
Does Ethereum have a hashrate?
Not anymore. Since 2022 Ethereum runs on Proof of Stake, where validators, not miners, produce blocks.
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Updated: 2026-10-19