With the slowdown of the rune and symbol craze, the impact of Bitcoin halving on miners’ income is starting to show. According to data from The Block, due to the fourth Bitcoin block reward halving, miners’ income in May decreased by 46% compared to the previous month, dropping to 963 million US dollars.
On April 20th, when the fourth Bitcoin halving was completed at 8:09 am Taiwan time, when the block height reached 840,000, the highly anticipated homogeneous token protocol Runes also went online simultaneously, igniting a market frenzy, with users rushing to mint rune tokens, causing Bitcoin transaction fees to soar.
Especially on April 20th, the transaction fee reached a peak of 1,257.71 BTC, accounting for over 75% of the miners’ income that day.
In recent months, the total transaction fees for Bitcoin have decreased, indicating a significant decrease in miners’ income. Despite the increase in transaction costs, which led to an increase in transaction fees and a decrease in the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network to the lowest point in three years, the “transaction fees” driven by Runes and Symbols after the Bitcoin halving allowed miners’ earnings to remain at a similar level as before the halving.
Recently, with the temporary slowdown of the rune and symbol craze, Bitcoin transaction fees have returned to levels similar to mid-2023, meaning that miners’ income has significantly decreased. According to data from The Block, due to the fourth Bitcoin block reward halving, miners’ income in May decreased by 46% compared to the previous month, dropping to 963 million US dollars, but it is similar to the data from the same period last year.
According to Cobo co-founder and CEO, and F2Pool co-founder Shenyu, the Bitcoin halving mainly affects the supply side, but it will also have certain impacts on various market participants. He pointed out that the halving event has significantly reduced miners’ income, which particularly affects miners using older-generation mining machines such as S19 Pro and M21. Since the marginal returns of these older machines are not enough to cover costs, many miners are forced to shut down or relocate to areas with lower electricity costs. The halving will also drive miners to accelerate the upgrading of mining machines to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
In addition, the entry of large listed mining companies and traditional financial capital has limited the decline in the overall network computing power, as these large mining companies have stronger risk resistance and capital strength, allowing them to maintain stable operations and even expand market share during market fluctuations.
Interestingly, the impact of the halving is not only on the supply side. Shenyu also stated that although Bitcoin itself does not require staking, both holders and miners hope to earn income through staking. Therefore, miners and BTC holders hope to see more staking and restaking protocols emerge, and the future growth or decrease in transaction fees will also impact the subsequent development of the Bitcoin network and ecosystem.