Bitcoin Miner Revenues Fall to Market Cycle Low

Bitcoin mining revenue or “hash price” — a measure of dollars earned per TH/s per day — has fallen to levels not seen since the FTX crash in November 2022, while hash rate has reached new highs.

This past week, the Bitcoin network hash rate surpassed 414 exahashes per second (EH/s) on August 18, marking a new peak for the metric.

According to Blockchain.com, the network hash rate has surged 54% from the beginning of 2023 and 80% over the past 12 months.

BTC hash rate and price 1 year on. Source: Blockchain.com

However, while the network looks good in terms of security, things are not so rosy for Bitcoin miners as revenues have fallen sharply to levels seen in November 2022, when the market cycle low was around $16,500.

According to HashPriceIndex, revenue per terahash per second is just $0.060 per day, roughly half of what it was in early May when the bitcoin inscription frenzy led to huge demand for block space.

Market analyst Dylan LeClair commented on the decline in revenue and the peak in computing power, saying that new, more efficient mining machines will continue to be produced, but prices will need to adjust upward to keep mining profitable at such high hash rates.

Miner revenue per terahash. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin miners have reportedly been relying on funds from second-quarter stock sales to stay afloat during the bear market.

On August 24, Bloomberg reported that 12 major listed mining companies raised about $440 million through stock issuance in the second quarter.

Mark Jeftovic, who runs the Bitcoin Capitalist newsletter, said that “some mining companies are diluting shareholders at an exorbitant rate,” adding that “if they’re diluting shareholders faster than Bitcoin is going up, you’re on the wrong side of the treadmill.”