- Bitcoin fee income has been above its annual average since March 2023.
- Miner flows to exchanges fell, indicating that miners were not yet indulging in profit-taking.
Bitcoin [BTC] mining has become lucrative in 2023, with May becoming a successful month for an industry battered by 2022. According to on-chain analytics company GlasnodeBitcoin miners earned $17.8 million in fees during the recent spike, improving just two trading days in 2018.
At the height of the BRC-20 frenzy, #Bitcoin Miners earned $17.8 million in transaction fees, with just 2 trading days during the 2018 peak recording higher fee income.
Currently, miners earn $1.7 million in fee income, down -$16.1 million from the recent peak. However, this… pic.twitter.com/T5pJpeoxxk
— glassnode (@glassnode) May 29, 2023
As network traffic has cooled, fee income has also climbed down from its peak. However, compared to historical data, this still remains a significantly high figure. Miners earned $1.7 million in revenue, surpassing more than 83% of trading days.
Remarkably rich
A better way to view the growing profitability of BTC miners is to compare miners’ total daily earnings to the 365-day simple moving average (SMA). The chart below shows that after staying below the SMA for most of 2022, sales have surpassed the annual average since March 2023, with a difference of $9 million in the past 24 hours.
Source: Glassnode
The rapidly increasing hash rate of the network was another indicator of the growing prominence of miners. The hash rate, or the computing power required to mine blocks, reached an all-time high (ATH) of 439 EH/s on May 1 and about 397 EH/s in the past 24 hours. While miners undoubtedly invested more time and resources into mining, the returns justified the effort.
Source: Glassnode
Will miners lock in profits?
While high fees had the potential to increase miners’ reserves and boost mining, it could also lead to more selling pressure from the miners. Data from CryptoQuant showed that after a small period in mid-May, the number of coins transferred from miners’ wallets to exchanges had fallen, implying that miners were not yet indulging in profit-taking.
Source: CryptoQuant
How much are 1,10,100 BTC worth today?
Help for Bitcoin miners
This proposed 30% tax on energy costs for cryptocurrency miners in the US, which has been widely criticized, has been withdrawn according to the congressman Warren Davidson on May 29. The controversial excise tax on Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) was part of a bill to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt.
From Statisticalthe US is a major center for global Bitcoin mining, accounting for a lion’s share of the total hash rate for the period 2019-2022.
Yes, one of the victories is blocking proposed taxes.
— Warren Davidson 🇺🇸 (@WarrenDavidson) May 29, 2023