Bitcoin Miners Earn $109 Million on Halving Day Amid Soaring Hashprice and Transaction Fees

On April 20, 2024, despite the expected subsidy reduction due to Bitcoin’s halving event, Bitcoin miners experienced a substantial increase in earnings, largely due to elevated transaction fees linked to the Rune protocol’s activities on the network. This surge in transaction fees led to an unusual boost in Bitcoin’s hashprice, reaching $178 per PH/s, the highest since April 2022, according to TheMinerMag.

The halving, which reduced the block subsidy to 3.125 BTC, did not deter the profitability for miners as on-chain activities soared. Specifically, the Rune protocol, akin to Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard, sparked a rush in creating meme-like tokens on Bitcoin’s network, significantly increasing transaction fees. On the day of the halving, miners earned nearly as much in transaction fees as they had in the preceding 19 days of April combined, totaling $82 million from fees alone.

In the immediate aftermath of the halving, within just 130 blocks, miners collectively bagged 1,675 BTC in rewards, valued at approximately $109 million. 

The Rune protocol has introduced a dynamic layer to Bitcoin’s ecosystem, enabling the creation of fungible tokens through the UTXO model. This has led to a competitive fee market where users can outbid each other for token creation, enhancing miners’ fee revenues in the process.

This trend of high transaction fees may continue to influence Bitcoin’s network economics, especially as the network’s hashrate climbs and the median fee for transactions begins to stabilize post-halving. As the community watches these developments, it remains to be seen how long these heightened on-chain activities will persist and how they will shape the future of Bitcoin mining profitability.