Bitcoin fundamentals to the moon

As is often the case with Bitcoin, short-term price action is meeting its match in underlying network data, which displays an altogether different trend.
This week, as with almost every week in 2023, network difficulty and hash rate are aiming for new all-time highs.
Hash rate is already higher than ever, according to some estimates, while difficulty will increase by approximately 2.5% on June 14. This will take it past 53 trillion for the first time.
Data from monitoring resource BTC.com confirms that network fundamentals are in “up only mode” despite BTC price pressures, with 2023 only seeing three difficulty reductions out of 12 adjustments in total.
“Bitcoin hashrate will not stop growing. This is insane,” Mitchell Askew, social media associate at Blockware, reacted.

As Cointelegraph often reports, the concept of Bitcoin spot price following hash rate, in particular, has long been a mantra for industry stalwarts, among them the popular but outspoken BTC advocate Max Keiser.

LookIntoBitcoin founder Phillip Swift, nonetheless, described the current difficulty levels as “increasingly challenging” for all but the most robust miners.

Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode meanwhile tracks the onboarding of miners in real time.
“Despite an uncertain Macroeconomic environment alongside intensifying regulatory pressure, ASICs continue to come online as the Bitcoin Hash Rate (7DMA) reaches an ATH of 381 EH/s,” researchers commented on a chart of hash rate.

Glassnode data meanwhile appears to show miner inflows to exchanges hitting their highest daily levels since 2019 last week.

Following up, James Straten, research and data analyst at crypto news and insights platform CryptoSlate, flagged mining pool Poolin as the likely main contributor to the flows.
Whales boost BTC exposure during altcoin sell-off
Analyzing the impact of the latest crypto market upheaval, research firm Santiment saw cause for bullishness.

his, it argued in findings published on June 11, is thanks to the buying conviction of Bitcoin’s largest-volume investor cohort — the whales.
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the largest class of whales has diverged from the rest of the investor base since May, accumulating while others distribute BTC.
With altcoins tumbling at the weekend, whales appeared to take the opportunity to increase, rather than decrease, BTC exposure.
“As altcoin madness has ensued, there quietly is a bullish divergence between Bitcoin’s accumulating whales and falling price,” Santiment commented.

At the same time, sentiment across the broader crypto market continues to reject knee-jerk reactions to the news.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index remains in “neutral” territory, having barely moved in recent weeks, hovering around the exact center of its 0-100 scale.