Data from bitcoin (BTC) on-chain analysis platform Bitbo shows that miners of the largest cryptocurrency suffered their worst month in nearly a year in terms of revenue generation.
According to figures available on the dashboard, BTC mining activities secured $827 million in August, a more than 10% decrease from July’s $927.35 million.
Transaction Fees Fall by $4 Million
The amount also represents a 57% drop from the sector’s best performance in March 2024, when it earned more than $1.9 billion. This was when the digital asset reached an all-time high of over $73,500 on March 13.
On-chain fees were not spared either. Data from The Block shows that network participants received about $20.76 million in the past month, which is $4.14 million shy of the total recorded in July. The fall is even steeper if you consider that in April, the blockchain attracted more than $281 million in transaction fees against a mining income of $1.5 billion.
Compounding the gloomy figures even more, the number of BTC mined in August also fell slightly, going from about 14,725 in July to 13,843.
This downturn made last month the worst revenue period for miners since September 2023, when they earned about $727 million. In the intervening time, its value has gone up by more than two times and was trading at $58,000 at the time of this writing.
Meanwhile, the daily confirmed transaction 30-day average peaked on July 31 at nearly 631,648 but fell to 594,871 by the end of August, according to Bitbo and Blockchain.com.
The month also saw a continued rise in mining difficulty, reaching an all-time high of 89.47 trillion, up from 86.87 trillion in July.
Uptick in Number of Bitcoin Whales
Despite the dip in revenue, there’s been a marked increase in the number of Bitcoin whales. In a post on X, crypto analytics platform Santiment shared that the tally of those holding at least 100 BTC grew by 283 over the past month. It means that as of now, 16,120 wallets hold more than 100 BTC, the highest level in nearly a year and a half.
Interestingly, the jump in holding activity came against a backdrop of the trillion-dollar cryptocurrency facing recent price struggles.
Data from CoinGecko shows the asset declined by 1.5% in the past 24 hours and lost nearly 10% of its value over the last seven days. In that time, it has fluctuated between $57,383 and $64,066, as it struggled to maintain its $60,000 support level.
