With the slowdown of the rune and symbol frenzy, the impact of Bitcoin halving on miner income has begun to show. According to data from The Block, due to the fourth Bitcoin block reward halving, miner income in May decreased by 46% compared to the previous month, dropping to $963 million.
On April 20, at 8:09 am Taiwan time, when the block height reached 840,000, the highly anticipated fungible token protocol Runes went live, immediately igniting a market frenzy with users rushing to mint rune tokens, resulting in a significant increase in Bitcoin transaction fees.
Especially on April 20, transaction fees reached a peak of 1,257.71 BTC, accounting for over 75% of miner income for that day.
In recent months, the total transaction fees for Bitcoin have decreased, similar to the levels in mid-2023, as the rune and symbol frenzy has temporarily subsided. This means that miner income has significantly decreased. According to data from The Block, due to the fourth Bitcoin block reward halving, miner income in May decreased by 46% compared to the previous month, dropping to $963 million, but it is similar to the data from the same period last year.
Cobo’s co-founder and CEO, as well as F2Pool’s co-founder, Shen Yu, stated on May 22 that the Bitcoin halving mainly affects the supply side, but it will also have a certain impact on various market participants.
He pointed out that the halving event has greatly reduced miner income, especially for miners using older generation mining machines such as the S19 Pro and M21. As the marginal returns of these older mining machines are not sufficient to cover costs, many miners have been forced to shut down operations or relocate to areas with lower electricity costs. The halving will also prompt miners to accelerate the upgrading of mining machines to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Furthermore, the entrance of large listed mining companies and traditional financial capital has limited the decline in network hash rate. These large mining companies have stronger risk resistance and capital strength, allowing them to maintain stable operations in market fluctuations and even expand their market share.
Interestingly, the impact of the halving is not only on the supply side. Shen Yu also stated that although Bitcoin itself does not require staking, holders and miners hope to earn income through staking. Therefore, miners and BTC holders both hope to see more staking and restaking protocols emerge. The future growth or decrease in transaction fees also affects the subsequent development of the Bitcoin network and ecosystem.