Bitcoin (BTC) miners experienced a significant downturn in August, with their monthly revenue plunging to the lowest point since the beginning of the year.
This was due to the steady drop in transaction volume on the Layer 1 (L1) network and the drop in miner rewards after the halving event.
Bitcoin Miners Face Hard Times
The decline in miner revenue on the Bitcoin network was driven by a decrease in user activity on the L1 in August, compounded by the halving event in April, which reduced miner rewards.
BTC miners earn revenue primarily from block rewards and transaction fees. Block rewards consist of a fixed amount of newly minted BTC awarded to the miner who successfully adds a new block to the blockchain.
This block reward is halved approximately every four years in an event known as the “halving.” The last halving event occurred on April 19, reducing miner rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Transaction fees, on the other hand, are fees paid by users to have their transactions included in a block. Artemis’ data shows that the number of unique addresses that completed at least one transaction on the blockchain in August totaled 421,220, falling by 10%.
Due to the fall in network users, total fees recorded also plummeted. According to the on-chain data provider, fees fell by 26%.
Bitcoin Network Fees. Source: Artemis
During the 31 days, miner monthly revenue totaled $827 million, representing an 11% drop from July’s $927 million.
For context, in January, BTC miners recorded over $1.9 billion in monthly revenue and mined 28,512 coins. This represented a 56% dip in monthly miner revenue during the eight months.
Bitcoin Miner Monthly Revenue. Source: Bitbo
According to Bitbo, BTC miners mined 13,843 coins valued slightly above $800 million at current market prices in August. This marked a 6% drop from the 14,725 BTC mined in July.
BTC Price Prediction: Coin Eyes $54,847
At press time, BTC exchanges hands at $57,808, its lowest price level in two weeks. The coin recently broke below the support level of its descending triangle, which it had traded within since August 26, and is now poised to witness a further decline.
This pattern appears when an asset’s price forms a series of lower highs and a horizontal support level. It confirms that the bearish trend will continue once the price breaks below the horizontal support level.
If the coin retests the support level and fails, flipping it into resistance, the downtrend will continue. This may cause BTC’s price to fall to $54,847.
Bitcoin Price Analysis. Source: TradingView
However, if the retest succeeds, BTC will break above the support level and rally toward $61,388.