Bitcoin miners saw earnings slip in September, with revenue falling 4.2% from August, a $69 million decline that left the industry with $1.564 billion for the month.
Key Highlights:
- Miners earned $1.564 billion in September, down from $1.633 billion in August.
- Block rewards made up nearly all revenue at $1.55 billion, with just $14 million from fees.
- Hashrate surged past 1,100 EH/s in September, setting new records.
- Mining difficulty is projected to rise between 4.6% and 5.9%.
Data from Hashrate Index showed the value of one petahash per second (PH/s) of SHA256 hashrate slipped to $52.10 by the end of September, compared with $53.15 at the start of the month. Despite that, miners maintained a strong pace, pushing Bitcoin’s hashrate to a peak of 1,109 EH/s during the month, up from 1,065 EH/s just 30 days earlier.
Figures from Newhedge indicated that nearly all of miners’ revenue came from block subsidies. Transaction fees contributed less than 1% of the total, with an average of only 0.65% of block rewards over the 30-day period. The month’s tally also fell short of July, when miners earned $1.61 billion.
The increased hashrate has shortened block times, averaging nine minutes and 26 seconds compared to the standard ten. That faster pace is expected to trigger a difficulty adjustment of between 4.63% and 5.9%, though the final figure depends on how the remaining blocks are mined.
With revenue sliding and difficulty climbing, analysts say only the most efficient rigs are likely to remain profitable. For less-optimized operators, September underscored how thin mining margins can become when network growth outpaces earnings.