Bitcoin mining revenue hits new low as August sees BTC mined decline

Data from bitcoin on-chain (BTC) analytics platform Bitbo shows that miners of the largest cryptocurrency suffered their worst month in almost a year in terms of revenue generation.

According to figures available on the board, BTC mining activities achieved $827 million in August, a decrease of more than 10% from July’s $927.35 million.

Transaction fees fall by $4 million

The amount also represents a 57% drop from the industry’s best performance in March 2024, when it earned more than $1.9 billion. That’s when the digital asset hit an all-time high of more than $73,500 on March 13.

The fees in the chain were not spared either. Data from The Block shows that network participants received about $20.76 million last month, which is $4.14 million less than the total recorded in July. The drop is even steeper when you consider that in April, the blockchain attracted more than $281 million in transaction fees against $1.5 billion in mining revenue.

To further compound the grim numbers, the number of BTC mined in August also dropped slightly, from around 14,725 in July to 13,843.

That drop made last month the worst earnings period for miners since September 2023, when they earned about $727 million. In the intervening time, it has more than doubled in value and was trading at $58,000 at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, the 30-day average daily confirmed transaction peaked on July 31 at near 631,648, but fell to 594,871 at the end of August, according to Bitbo and Blockchain.com.

The month also saw a continued increase in mining difficulty, reaching an all-time high of 89.47 trillion, up from 86.87 trillion in July.

Increase in the number of Bitcoin whales

Despite the drop in revenue, there has been a marked increase in the number of Bitcoin whales. In a post on X, crypto analytics platform Santiment shared that the count of those holding at least 100 BTC grew by 283 over the past month. It means that as of now, 16,120 wallets hold more than 100 BTC, the highest level in almost a year and a half.

Interestingly, the jump in holding activity came against the backdrop of the trillion-dollar cryptocurrency facing recent price struggles.

Data from CoinGecko shows that the asset declined by 1.5% in the past 24 hours and lost nearly 10% of its value over the past seven days. During that time, it has fluctuated between $57,383 and $64,066 as it struggled to hold its $60,000 support level.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

2024 LIMITED OFFER on BYDFi Exchange – Up to $2888 Welcome Reward, Use this link to register and open a 100 USDT-M position for free!