Bitcoin Mining Profits Crushed by Record Difficulty and Historic Hashprice Drop

On Aug. 7, 2024, bitcoin’s price moved within a 24-hour range between $55,742 and $57,607. This lower price bracket has significantly reduced bitcoin mining revenue, causing the estimated daily value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s), also referred to as the hashprice, to drop below $36 two days prior.

Miners Grapple With Unprecedented Low Hashprice

As of Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT, data from Luxor’s hashrateindex.com shows that the hashprice, or the projected daily value of 1 PH/s, is holding steady at $39.83 per petahash. While this is a significant low for miners, it represents a slight recovery from two days earlier when the hashprice dipped below the $36 threshold.

Luxor’s hashrateindex.com Bitcoin Hashprice Index on Aug. 7, 2024.

Reaching that level marked an unprecedented low in bitcoin’s history, creating considerable pressure on miner profits. Even before bitcoin’s value dropped to the $55K range, mining profits were already under substantial strain.

July was the least profitable month of 2024 so far for bitcoin miners, and over the past seven days, they have generated a modest $163.77 million in revenue during August. Additionally, a mere $3.14 million in onchain fees contributed to the total revenue for the first week of the month.

The latest insights from theminermag.com reveal that a hashprice of $38 falls below the breakeven point for fleet hashcost. “A hashprice of $38/PH/s is already lower than the fleet hashcost breakeven point for many publicly traded mining companies, although some of them have raised capital via extensive equity financing,” the publication stated this week.

At present, bitcoin miners face a complex challenge involving a combination of low onchain fees, depressed BTC prices, and an all-time high mining difficulty. At present, the total network hashrate remains above the 600 exahash per second (EH/s) range and an estimated difficulty reduction is on the cards for Aug. 14, 2024.

What do you think about the historic drop in hashprice over the last week? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.