Historic Drop in Bitcoin Revenue Leaves Miners Struggling

After peaking at 677 exahash per second (EH/s) on July 25, Bitcoin’s network hashrate declined to 629 EH/s as of Aug. 4. The recent uptick in Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, coupled with the subsequent drop in its price, has driven bitcoin mining revenue to record lows.

Monthly Bitcoin Fee Revenue Drops 75%, Hashrate Slides 48 EH/s

Bitcoin miners are facing considerable challenges as revenues have diminished since the fourth block reward halving. In early August, the hashprice—the estimated daily earnings per petahash per second (PH/s)—dropped to a record low of $42.78 per PH/s on Aug. 4, 2024. This decline followed a recent 10.5% increase in mining difficulty, pushing it to an all-time high. Additionally, BTC prices fell below $61,000, after having briefly surpassed $70,000 just days earlier.

Luxor’s Hashprice Index via hashrateindex.com.

The increased difficulty and declining price over the past few days have led to a decrease in hashrate, with 48 EH/s of hashpower exiting the network since July 25. Moreover, July marked the lowest monthly revenue in 2024 so far, as onchain fees significantly decreased over the last month. Fees collected in July were more than 75% lower than those in June. Since July 5, the average transaction fee has been under $1.60 per transaction, with the current average transfer fee at 7.7 satoshis per virtual byte (sats/vB).

According to Mempool.space, most users today are paying between 1-4 sats/vB, with some transfers costing less than $1. Despite the reduced fees, onchain activity has remained robust, with confirmed transactions exceeding 800,000 per day on four occasions since July 21. The number of confirmed transactions has consistently stayed above 445,000 per day.

The recent developments in Bitcoin mining highlight the increasing pressure on miners as they navigate a landscape of rising difficulty and fluctuating prices. The combination of record-high difficulty, diminished revenue, and reduced fees signals a pivotal moment for the network. As miners adapt to these conditions, the resilience of the Bitcoin network will likely face its greatest test yet going forward.