Miners Experience Decreased Bitcoin Earnings Following Halving Event
After a period of high fees, the costs of onchain transfers on the Bitcoin network have significantly decreased. On Friday, fees reached a peak of $240 per transaction, but they have now dropped to just $11.06 each. Since reaching block height 840,179, miners are earning less bitcoin in rewards compared to before the halving event at block 840,000.
Miners are now earning less bitcoin compared to before the recent halving. Initially, after the halving, the average onchain fee skyrocketed to over $240 per transaction around 9 p.m. EDT on Friday. By 8 a.m. EDT on Sunday, the cost for a high-priority transaction settled at 121 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB) or $11 per transfer. At the same time, bitcoin’s trading price stands at $65,300 per unit.
In the early stages after block 840,000, bitcoin miners secured nine of the ten highest fees ever recorded on BTC blocks. They accumulated an impressive 1,087.99 bitcoins in fees alone during the first 93 blocks post-halving. However, by 8 a.m. on Sunday, this trend of high earnings appeared to have come to a halt. Post block 840,179, the reward in BTC for miners has diminished.
The hashprice of bitcoin, which represents the value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of daily hashrate, has dropped significantly from $183 per PH/s on April 20 to $114 per PH/s as of 7 a.m. EDT on Sunday, April 21. Before the halving, block rewards included 6.25 BTC plus transaction fees, averaging about 6.776 BTC between block heights 839,848 to 839,900. Now, the average has dropped to approximately 5.105 BTC per block since the decrease in fees or since block height 840,179.
Bitcoin miners briefly enjoyed higher returns after the halving, with block rewards yielding much more than before. Miners operating between blocks 840,000 and 840,179 earned an average of 12.867 BTC per block. However, it seems that the impact of the Runes protocol has diminished by Sunday, as onchain transactions now mainly involve financial exchanges, taking advantage of the lower fees compared to the previous surge in transfers using the OP_RETURN function.
What are your thoughts on the current fee landscape for miners? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
