Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Reaches New High in August, Squeezing Miners’ Profits

Bitcoin Mining Struggles in August: Revenue Dips Over 10% as Difficulty Soars

Bitcoin Mining– Bitcoin miners just faced their lowest revenue-generating month since September 2023, as the number of mined coins took a dip in August. According to Bitbo data, miners’ revenue reached $827.56 million last month, a significant drop of over 10.5% from July’s $927.35 million. Despite this downturn, the figure was still up 5% compared to August 2023.

The revenue generated in August marks a dramatic 57% decrease from the peak reached in March 2024, where miners earned nearly $1.93 billion. This was the same month when Bitcoin reached its all-time high of over $73,500 on March 13. The recent revenue slump highlights the increasing challenges miners are facing, as the worst revenue month since September 2023 saw earnings of $727.79 million, with Bitcoin hovering around $25,000 throughout that month.

Bitcoin Price Doubles Despite Revenue Drop

Interestingly, despite the decline in revenue, Bitcoin’s price has more than doubled, trading at $57,315 at the time of writing. However, the number of Bitcoins mined during August slightly decreased from around 14,725 BTC in July to 13,843 BTC last month, further contributing to the reduced earnings.

Impact of Bitcoin Halving and Rising Difficulty on Miners

The drop in revenue can be attributed to a combination of falling transaction volumes and a significant increase in the difficulty of mining Bitcoin. The difficulty surged after the April Bitcoin halving, which slashed rewards by 50% to 3.125 BTC per block. August saw the median fees, which make up a percentage of the block reward, at just 2%. Moreover, the daily confirmed transaction 30-day average hit a year-to-date peak of nearly 631,648 on July 31 before falling to 594,871 by August 31, as reported by Bitbo and Blockchain.com.

Mining Difficulty Reaches All-Time High in August

The difficulty level for mining Bitcoin has continued to climb, reaching an all-time peak of 89.47 trillion in August, up from 86.87 trillion in July. This increase in difficulty has squeezed miners’ profitability, forcing some to shift their computing power to artificial intelligence (AI) ventures, with some deals reportedly netting miners billions of dollars.

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