Discover the unprecedented peak in Bitcoin hashrate and the surge in miner revenue during July 2023.
Both the hashrate and miner revenue for bitcoin mining increased in July 2023. In particular, the hashrate of Bitcoin reached new records.
The hashrate of bitcoin
The peak Bitcoin hashrate ever was in July 2023. It happened on Saturday, July 8; it was the first time in recorded history that it went beyond 500 Eh/s.
The weekly average was 200 a year ago, for comparison.
Given that it is simply an estimate, it is a number that should be treated with caution. That peak happened on July 8 in a matter of hours.
The high, which is a more accurate estimate when using weekly averages, happened on July 11 at 410 Eh/s. That is still higher than a year ago by more than two times.
On the other hand, the 8th of July, at 465 Eh/s, holds the record for all-time daily averages.
It is noteworthy that even the difficulty reached its peak in July, in part because the difficulty inevitably rises as hashrate does.
Since the difficulty only changes about every two weeks, it is no accident that the pinnacle was reached on July 12—shortly after the hashrate records. The expected hashrate shrinkage caused it to drop below 54T at the end of the month after getting close to 60T.
Profits
The odd thing is that the miners’ profits grew despite the difficulty level rising.
In general, mining expenses rise along with increasing difficulty. Additionally, an increase in complexity tends to result in lower profitability because overall revenues are generally consistent.
Additionally, Bitcoin mining profitability increased to roughly $0.08 per day per Th/s in July as opposed to $0.07 per day per Th/s in June.
True enough, revenues have also gone up.
In total, the miners made $844.5 million in July, over $61 million more than in June.
It is important to note that July includes an extra month, so even with that, the total monthly receipts ought to increase by 3%. However, in July, Bitcoin miners’ overall revenues increased by 7%.
$18.8 million of the $844.5 million in total comes from fees, with the remaining money coming from block rewards. Therefore, it is evident that the increase is merely the result of a higher market value for bitcoin in July compared to June, rather than additional fees being collected.
After all, the average price of Bitcoin in June was considerably lower than $30,000, whereas in July it was roughly at that level.
In other words, mining Bitcoin at the moment is doing really well.
Between November and December 2022, when the price of BTC was around $16,000, the profitability of Bitcoin mining reached its absolute low point in recent years. It is important to remember that compared to now, it was roughly $0.06 per Th/s each day back then. So, never even during that turbulent period did Bitcoin mining involve a significant danger.
Usage of energy
Additionally, the estimated worldwide energy usage for Bitcoin mining peaked at its lowest level in December.
In December, the estimated yearly total consumption had fallen to 70 TWh, but by March, it had risen back to 100 TWh. Although it briefly exceeded 110 TWh in July, the estimate mostly stayed between 100 and 110 TWh.
The consumption peaked in December 2021, not long after the previous major bullrun’s high, when it hit 200 TWh. Therefore, it can be claimed that, with the exception of the minimal peak in December 2022, Bitcoin’s energy consumption has decreased by half from the highest peak.
It was around 80 TWh prior to the commencement of the most recent major bull run, thus little growth has occurred since then.
It’s critical to remember that the energy required for Bitcoin mining is neither constant nor predetermined. The miners make the arbitrary decision of how much to ingest.
The miners will inevitably be motivated to consume as much as possible, but always at a lower cost than the revenue because they do not mine at a loss, as mining is a competition where whomever mines the most hashes wins.
Therefore, companies have the option to raise mining expenses and, consequently, energy consumption when the market value of the BTC being mined rises; yet, if the price falls, they are forced to lower usage.
