Bitcoin Miners Experience Lowest Revenues in Nearly a Year Due to Rising Difficulty

August marked a significant downturn for Bitcoin miners, recording the lowest revenue month of 2024 and the weakest showing since September of the previous year.

August Revenue Figures

According to data from Bitbo, miners generated $827.56 million in revenue during August, representing a decline of more than 10.5% from July’s revenue of $927.35 million. However, this figure was a 5% increase compared to the same month in 2023.

• August 2023 revenue: $827.56 million
• July 2024 revenue: $927.35 million
• March 2024 peak revenue: just under $1.93 billion

The August figure marked a staggering 57% drop from March 2024 when Bitcoin reached its all-time high of over $73,500 on March 13.

Comparison with Previous Year

This revenue decline is the lowest for Bitcoin miners since they earned $727.79 million in September 2023, at a time when Bitcoin was around $25,000.

Currently, Bitcoin has more than doubled its price, trading at approximately $57,315.

Mined Bitcoin and Challenges Facing Miners

The total amount of Bitcoin mined in August fell slightly, dropping from approximately 14,725 BTC in July to 13,843 BTC in August.

This decrease in revenue is attributed to several factors:

• A fall in transaction volumes
• An increase in mining difficulty, accelerated following the Bitcoin halving event in April, which reduced rewards to 3.125 BTC.

Transaction Fees and Difficulty Trends

In August, the median fees, which are part of block rewards, constituted 2% of the total. On July 31, the average number of daily confirmed transactions peaked at nearly 631,648 before retreating to 594,871 by the end of August, as per data from Bitbo and Blockchain.com.

The mining difficulty has been on an upward trend as well, reaching an all-time high of 89.47 trillion in August, up from 86.87 trillion in July.

Due to the challenges presented by increased mining difficulty and reduced profitability, some miners have begun exploring alternative revenue streams, including providing computing power for artificial intelligence, with certain contracts potentially earning them billion-dollar deals.