Bitcoin miners have seen their revenue increase in recent times and even saw a new all-time high (ATH) on December 16. This comes after a long period in which miners were reported to have experienced a significant crash in their mining revenue.
Bitcoin Miners Earn $9.98 Million In A Single Day According to data from Dune Analytics, Bitcoin miners earned over $9.98 million on December 16 as fees from Ordinal inscriptions. This record eclipses the previous one achieved on May 8, 2023, when miners earned over $7.21 million.
It is, however, worth mentioning that there has been a substantial increase in BTC’s price since May 8, which could explain the rise in the dollar value. Miners receive these fees to inscribe digital assets (Ordinals) on the Bitcoin blockchain. Ordinals are casually referred to as “Bitcoin NFTs.”
Bitcoin Ordinals began to regain steam last month after months of slow activity. The resurgence in trading volume has largely contributed to the spike in transactions fees on the network. These transaction fees picked up sometime in November and have continued to gain momentum since then.
At the time of writing, the average transaction fee stands at over $37, according to data from BitInfoCharts. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin network seems to be running at full capacity at the moment as miners try to keep up with the pace. Live data from mempool.space shows that there are still over 200,000 unconfirmed transactions.
The increase in network activity could also explain why Bitcoin mining difficulty seems to have cooled after facing spells of consecutive rise. Data from Coinwarz shows that there hasn’t been any increase in Bitcoin’s difficulty in the last seven days. There is the possibility that there aren’t enough miners to deal with the amount of traffic that BTC is currently facing.
BTC price falls to $41,000 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com A Welcome Development For Miners Bitcoin miners will undoubtedly be glad with this development, considering that they had seen their revenue crash at some point this year. NewsBTC reported that these miners had faced a significant drop in their revenue in a period that spanned over six months. However, things picked up back in October (just around when BTC’s price also began to surge).
Miners will also be hoping that this trend of increased network activity can continue as they look to generate as much profit as they can before the Bitcoin Halving occurs. The event is scheduled to take place sometime in April 2024. Once that happens, Miners will see their BTC rewards cut in half.
Featured image from Crypto.com, chart from Tradingview.com
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Scott Matherson Scott Matherson is a leading crypto writer at Bitcoinist, who possesses a sharp analytical mind and a deep understanding of the digital currency landscape. Scott has earned a reputation for delivering thought-provoking and well-researched articles that resonate with both newcomers and seasoned crypto enthusiasts. Outside of his writing, Scott is passionate about promoting crypto literacy and often works to educate the public on the potential of blockchain.