Falling Bitcoin Hashprice and Revenues Trigger Major Miner Exodus

Bitcoin miners are encountering significant challenges as the network sees an exit amidst falling prices and declining revenues. Over the past week, Bitcoin’s price has decreased by 5%, impacting miners’ earnings as hashprice— the estimated daily value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s)—has dropped to levels not seen since May. Currently, hashprice is just above $47 per PH/s, according to Bitcoin.com.

The drop in Bitcoin’s value has reduced miners’ earnings from block rewards and related fees. Presently, miners earn between 0.076 BTC and 0.16 BTC per block in fees, significantly lower than a few months ago. As of June 29, Bitcoin mining revenue for June stands at $914.43 million, with $99.62 million from fees, compared to May’s $964.24 million, with $64.85 million from fees.

As of Saturday, June 29, the hashprice was $47.33, the lowest since May 1 when it fell below $45 per PH/s. This revenue decline has pressured miners, causing the total network hashrate to drop to just below 560 EH/s. This indicates a departure of about 100 EH/s, or approximately 96 EH/s, since the end of May.

Miners have benefited from two minor difficulty adjustments, ranging from 0.79% to 0.05% over the past two recalculations. As the hashrate continues to fall and block intervals exceed the 10-minute mark, forecasts suggest a potential difficulty reduction of between 4.6% and 7.3%.

With recent Bitcoin price drops and declining hashprice, miners are facing heightened challenges amidst fluctuating revenues. Despite a slight improvement in fee income in June, the persistent decrease in hashprice has led to a significant reduction in the network’s total hashrate.