Bitcoin Miners Face Toughest Month in Nearly a Year as Revenues Plunge Amid Rising Difficulty

Bitcoin Miners Face Toughest Month in Nearly a Year as Revenues Plunge Amid Rising Difficulty

Bitcoin miners faced their most challenging month in nearly a year this August, recording their lowest revenue since September 2023. The total revenue for miners last month was $827.56 million, marking a significant decline of over 10.5% compared to July’s $927.35 million. Despite this drop, revenues were still up 5% from August 2023, according to data from Bitbo.

This downturn is stark, especially when compared to March 2024, a month that saw miner revenues peak at just under $1.93 billion—coinciding with Bitcoin’s all-time high of over $73,500 on March 13. In August, Bitcoin miners earned the least they have all year, a sharp contrast to March’s highs.

Even though Bitcoin‘s price has more than doubled since last September, hovering around $57,315 at the time of writing, the monthly revenue for miners in August was the lowest since they earned $727.79 million in September 2023, when Bitcoin was trading at around $25,000.

Throughout 2024, Bitcoin miner revenues have been on a downward trend following the March peak. In August, the number of Bitcoins mined also saw a slight decline, from around 14,725 BTC in July to 13,843 BTC.

The drop in revenue is largely due to a combination of lower transaction volumes and a significant increase in mining difficulty. This difficulty surge has been exacerbated by the Bitcoin halving event in April, which slashed mining rewards by 50% to 3.125 BTC per block.

Additionally, the median fees that miners collected as part of block rewards made up just 2% of their total earnings in August. Daily confirmed transactions also saw a decline, with the 30-day average peaking on July 31 at nearly 631,648 before falling to 594,871 by the end of August, according to data from Bitbo and Blockchain.com.

August also saw mining difficulty reach a new all-time high of 89.47 trillion, up from 86.87 trillion in July, further squeezing miner profitability. In response to these challenges, some miners have started redirecting their computing power towards artificial intelligence projects, which have proven to be highly lucrative, sometimes bringing in billions of dollars.

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