As the new year approaches, more than a dozen bitcoin mining pools still dedicate a total of 238 exahash per second (EH/s) toward the Bitcoin blockchain in order to secure the network and reap mining rewards. Statistics indicate that the mining pool Foundry USA discovered the most block rewards this year, as the operation found 11,779 bitcoin blocks out of the 53,240 rewards mined during the last 365 days.

More Than 53K Bitcoin Block Rewards Discovered in 2022, Top Five Mining Pools Mined a Total of 39,545 Blocks

On Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, metrics show that 53,240 blocks were mined this year and a total of 23 known mining pools discovered the block subsidies. Presently, bitcoin’s price and high mining difficulty rating are making it awfully hard for miners to profit at the end of the year.

Data indicates that the average BTC mining cost according to metrics from macromicro.me is around $18,816 per unit, while BTC’s average spot market value in U.S. dollars is $16,800 per unit. The discrepancies between the cost of BTC production and BTC’s spot market value have been a tough reality for miners since mid-June 2022.

Prior to mid-June 2022, BTC’s spot market value was well above the average cost of production since mid-Nov. 2020. 12-month metrics show that in 2022, Foundry USA obtained the most blocks with 11,779 recorded.

Three of those blocks were empty blocks, and Foundry’s block discovery indicates that it represented 22.12% of the network’s hashrate this year. 2022 was a good year for Antpool in terms of finding BTC blocks over the last 12 months.

Antpool found 8,560 block rewards during the past 365 days and 22 of them were empty blocks. Antpool’s 12-month metrics show the pool’s hashrate this year represented 16.08% of the total network.

F2pool managed to hold down the third largest mining pool position in 2022 with 14.72% of the year’s total hashrate. F2pool gained a total of 7,837 out of the 53,240 blocks found and 28 were empty blocks.

Binance Pool found 6,175 BTC blocks in 2022 which equates to 11.60% of the year’s total hashrate. Viabtc clocked in at 9.76% of the hashrate as the pool attained 5,194 of this year’s blocks.

Calculations show that the top five mining pools mined a total of 39,545 of this year’s 53,240 blocks discovered, or 74.28% of the total hashrate. Other notable bitcoin mining pools in the top ten standings in 2022 include Poolin, Braiins Pool, Btc.com, Luxor, and SBI Crypto, respectively.

Those five pools accounted for 22.62% of the total hashrate over the last 365 days. Unknown hashrate, otherwise known as stealth miners, accounted for 1.45% of the hashrate during the last 12 months, discovering approximately 771 bitcoin block rewards.

On Dec. 23, 2021, Bitcoin’s total hashrate was around 184 EH/s or 184,000 petahash per second (PH/s). Roughly around that time, within a three-day radius, Foundry had around 30.93 EH/s and today the pool has around 75 EH/s.

F2pool had around 27.88 EH/s and now has around 29.20 EH/s, while Antpool had 25.59 EH/s compared to today’s 48.09 EH/s. Besides the increase of around 29.35% from a year ago today in overall hashrate from 184 EH/s to 238 EH/s, the Bitcoin network also tapped a lifetime high in terms of total hashrate.

Statistics show that on Nov. 12, 2022, at block height 762,845, the total hashrate tapped a high of around 347.16 EH/s. The 347.16 EH/s lifetime record equates to 0.347 zettahash per second (ZH/s).

It also became a lot more difficult to find a bitcoin block this year, as the mining difficulty jumped from 24.37 trillion to today’s 35.36 trillion. The mining difficulty rating also tapped an all-time high this year at 36.84 trillion after block height 760,032 and the two weeks that followed.

The network recorded these feats despite the lower prices during the last 12 months compared to last year’s bitcoin bull run. 2022 saw a number of newly introduced bitcoin mining rigs that packed a whole lot more hashpower per watt.

Bitmain released the Antminer S19 XP Hyd., which boasts around 255 terahash per second (TH/s). The company also released the Antminer S19 XP with 140 TH/s. Canaan released the Avalon A1366 bitcoin mining device, which produces around 130 TH/s. There’s also the Microbt Whatsminer M50S bitcoin mining rig that produces around 126 TH/s.

What do you think about the last 12 months of bitcoin mining? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, editorial photo credit: Btc.com, coinwarz.com, macromicro.me,