The Bitcoin network hashrate has topped 1 Zetahash per second (ZH/s) for the first time in Bitcoin’s 16-year history, according to several blockchain data sources.

Bitcoin’s hashrate crossed the milestone on April 5 at a peak of 1.025 ZH/s, according to mempool.space data, while BTC Frame data said it hit 1.02 ZH/s a day earlier.

Data from Coinwarz says that Bitcoin hashrate soared to as high as 1.1 ZH/s on April 4 at block height 890,915 — however, the same data indicates that Bitcoin first crossed 1 ZH/s on March 24.

Bitcoin’s hashrate has fallen back below 0.95 ZH/s on April 7 since reaching 1 ZH/s. Source: BTC Frame

Discrepancy in Bitcoin hashrate trackers 

The differences result from the varying approaches used to calculate hashrate — such as when block times and difficulty adjustments are measured, which Bitcoin nodes and miner pools are used to pull data from and more.

Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp also previously pointed out that estimating Bitcoin’s hashrate with one “trailing block” as opposed to five can result in a difference of over 0.04 ZH/s.

“Viewing the raw Hashrate metric can be deceiving due to random variations in block times,” added Blockware Solutions head analyst Mitchell Askew, who pointed out that Bitcoin’s 30-day moving average hashrate is still around 0.845 ZH/s mark in a note to Cointelegraph.

Notching 1 ZH/s is a massive network achievement

Despite the discrepancies, the feat highlights the massive amount of computational power and increasing decentralization of the Bitcoin network, making it more secure than ever and significantly reducing the likelihood of a 51% attack.

The Bitcoin network’s reported rise to 1 ZH/s — equivalent to 1,000 Exahashes per second — marks a 1,000x increase since late January 2016, when Bitcoin first hit 1 EH/s for the first time. 

The second-largest proof-of-work crypto network, Litecoin, currently boasts a hashrate of 2.49 Petahashes per second according to Coinwarz — making it around 40,000 times less computationally powerful than Bitcoin.

Source: Pierre Rochard

Askew noted that the huge rise in hashrate has coincided with more commercial Bitcoin mining firms competing to solve Bitcoin blocks in recent years.

“Miners are doubling down: expanding sites and plugging in more efficient machines,” Askew said, adding that less efficient miners could soon be washed out unless Bitcoin’s (BTC) price rallies again in the coming months.

MARA Holdings is the largest Bitcoin miner with more than 50 EH/s of compute power, while the largest share of hashrate is channeled to Bitcoin mining pools Foundry USA Pool and AntPool, according to the Hashrate Index.

Related: Bitcoin price drops below $80K as stocks face 1987 Black Monday rerun

At least 24 publicly listed Bitcoin companies have machines set up to mine Bitcoin, according to CompaniesMarketCap.com. 

Among the other large miners contributing hashrate are Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, Hut 8 Mining and TeraWulf.

Bitcoin’s hashrate soars as BTC plummets on recession fears

The new all-time high in Bitcoin hashrate came in the middle of a sharp market downturn — with Bitcoin (BTC) falling nearly 10% over the last four days to $78,750, while US stocks saw an estimated $6.6 trillion loss on April 3 and 4 — the largest two-day loss ever.

Much of the fall has been attributed to US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, which many industry analysts say are sparking recession fears.

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Alon Cohen, co-founder of the Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, is set to bring back live streaming on the platform — five months after suspending the feature after several incidents involving harmful content. 

Posting on X on April 4, Cohen said the feature has returned with “industry standard moderation systems in place and transparent guidelines.” He said it had been rolled out to just 5% of users. 

Source: Alon Cohen

Pump.fun’s website describes the purpose of its new live-streaming moderation policy as being “to cultivate a social environment on pump fun that preserves creativity and freedom of expression and encourages meaningful engagement amongst users, free of illegal, harmful, and negative interactions.”

Breaches of the moderation policy could see creators having their livestreams and Pump.fun accounts terminated. 

The policy prohibits certain types of content, including violence, animal abuse, pornography and youth endangerment. However, it also creates ambiguity by claiming that “pump fun does not intend to universally define what content is ‘appropriate’ or ‘inappropriate.’” 

“There is an implicit assumption that some content — perhaps much content — generally defined as NSFW will in fact appear on pump fun,” Pump.fun’s moderation policy states. 

The platform added it reserves the right to “unilaterally determine the appropriateness of content where necessary and to moderate it accordingly.”

Live-streaming return comes as memecoin market crumbles

Pump.fun removed its live-streaming feature last November after it became awash with extreme content as memecoin creators turned to increasingly shocking tactics to promote their tokens. 

Some users were allegedly threatening violence or self-harm if a token didn’t reach a price goal.

The platform said its unprecedented growth had put a strain on its moderators, and that it would pause the live-streaming functionality indefinitely to ensure the safety of its users “until the moderation infrastructure is ready to deal with the heightened levels of activity.”

At the time, Mikko Ohtamaa, co-founder of algorithmic trading firm Trading Strategy, said that if Pump.fun continued to allow live-streaming without appropriate moderation, it would quickly be shut down once a mainstream audience became aware of what was going on.

“I advocate for freedom of speech, but these streams are causing practical issues where people are breaking the law in live broadcasts. This will trigger a shutdown when the mainstream media catches a wind on this,” Ohtamaa said.

Pump.fun’s decision to reintroduce its live-streaming feature comes as interest in memecoins has been down significantly following a series of high-profile rug pulls such as Libra (LIBRA) and Melania Meme (MELANIA). That’s coupled with the poor price performance of tokens like Trump (TRUMP) — which, according to CoinGecko, is now down over 90% from its January highs.

Related: Libra founder: Memecoin critics only ‘bitch’ when left out of insider deals

Data from Dune Analytics showed in March that the graduation rate for tokens launched on Pump.fun — that is, the percentage of tokens that achieve a large enough market cap to become tradable on a regular decentralized exchange — had fallen to under 1%, down from highs of around 1.67%. 

Combined with a sharp drop in the number of tokens being launched on the platform, this has seen the total number of tokens graduating from highs of around 5,400 per week in January to under 1,500 in March.

The number of tokens launched on the Solana network has also fallen dramatically overall. Only 31,651 launched on April 5, according to Solscan, less than one-third of the 95,578 created at the peak of the memecoin frenzy on Jan. 26.

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Cryptocurrency prices tumbled as the US stock futures market opened sharply lower on April 6 as the Trump administration doubled down on its global tariff strategy.

The Trump administration hit all countries with a 10% tariff starting April 5, with some slapped at higher rates, including China at 34%, the European Union at 20%, and Japan at 24%.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped over 6% in the last 24 hours and was trading around $77,883. Meanwhile, Ether (ETH) shed over 12% in the same time frame and was trading at $1,575, according to CoinGecko. The total crypto market cap dropped over 8% to $2.5 trillion. 

Prices have clawed back some losses since. Bitcoin has recovered 1.4% to $78,500. Meanwhile, Ether regained $1,594.

Source: Autism Capital

At the same time, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures market sentiment for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, returned a score of 23 in its latest April 7 update, which is considered extreme fear.

In a statement, Charlie Sherry, head of finance at Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, said the drop is unsurprising because global markets are generally more illiquid on Sundays.

“As a result, a few large sell-offs can have a disproportionate impact, pushing prices down quickly,” he said. 

“There’s no mystery behind the trigger: President Trump’s recent tariff talk has rattled macro markets, with global trade relations suddenly looking uncertain.” 

Some traders, however, predict a Bitcoin breakout could be around the corner. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has also speculated that while the tariffs are rattling markets, they could result in a Bitcoin rally. 

The US Stock Futures market has also opened down.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 dropped nearly 4%, according to Google Finance. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures sank by over 8%. 

Trading resource the Kobeissi Letter said in an April 6 post to X that the drop in US stock market futures puts S&P 500 futures in ”bear market territory,” adding that the US stock market has now erased an average of $400 billion per trading day for the last 32 days. 

Source: Kobeissi Letter

Tom Dunleavy, a managing partner at venture capital firm MV Global, said it could be the “worst three-day move for US stocks of all time” if “tonight’s futures hold.” 

Trump Administration doubles down on tariffs

Crypto-friendly billionaire investor Bill Ackman speculates that US President Donald Trump could postpone the tariffs to allow countries to make counteroffers or deals.

In an April 6 statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump doubled down on the tariffs, saying the US has massive financial deficits with China, the European Union and many others, which the levies will solve.

Related: ‘National emergency’ as Trump’s tariffs dent crypto prices

“The only way this problem can be cured is with TARIFFS, which are now bringing tens of billions of dollars into the USA. They are already in effect, and a beautiful thing to behold,” he said.

He also told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wasn’t intentionally trying to cause a market sell-off but added that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” 

At the same time, US National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an April 6 interview with ABC’s This Week program that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to negotiate fresh trade deals.

“They’re doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff,” he said. 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged US trading partners in an April 2 interview with Bloomberg against taking retaliatory steps, arguing “this is the high end of the number” for tariffs if they don’t try to add more levies in response. 

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