Bitcoin Miners Revenue Hits 2 Year Low as Total Transaction Fees See 5 Year Lows

Bitcoin (BTC) miners and their revenue is hitting a new near 2-year-low. This is very important for the network that is growing and expanding all over the world. One of the first noticeable effects of this revenue drop for miners is that transaction fees are lower.

It is becoming very cheap to transact Bitcoin on its network. Back in 2017, fees were ridiculously high and did not allow individuals to process fast and cheap transactions. Indeed, when Bitcoin was reaching its all-time high in December 2017, some transactions could cost around $60, if not more. Transaction times were also very long for those users paying the lowest fees in the market.

This information was released by the Twitter user and trader @Thrillmex on February 17. He explained that the total transaction fees hit a 5 year low. This is the total value of all transaction fees paid to miners in Bitcoin terms. Miners are receiving every time less money.

The total transaction fees hit a 5 year low. This is the total value of all transaction fees paid to miners (in btc). USD linear chart looks brutal.

Miners are getting paid less and less.

/2 pic.twitter.com/4zb6m68eQx

— 𝓡𝓪𝓶𝓹𝓪𝓰𝓮 (@Thrillmex) February 17, 2019

At the same time, the total number of transactions on the network per day is reaching the same levels as it had back in 2017 when the market was close to reaching its all-time high. Miners are just receiving less revenue from transaction fees than in the past.

Furthermore, the cost per transaction is 86% cheaper, according to Thrillmex. Back in 2017, processing a single transaction could cost $140. Now, this number dropped down to $18.

In another tweet, he shows that the number of unique addresses is also stable. During the last five years, the active addresses on the Bitcoin network stabilized around 450,000 – 500,000. When Bitcoin was traded close to its highest point the number of active addresses reached 1 million.

He went on talking the number of addresses in the market. He shows that 48% of all addresses have $3 or less in them. 22% of the addresses in the market have between $30 and $300 in them. Surprisingly, 87% of bitcoin users have less than 0.1 Bitcoin.

Although transactions are reaching the same levels as when the market was in a bull run, Bitcoin-related tweets are at January 2015 lows.

It is also important to mention that miners revenue is composed 99% by block rewards and just 1% of transaction fees.

Re; Bitcoin Mining Fees Debate;

Daily Miner income today of c.$6,37m inclusive of $70k fees can be easily maintained with assumed increase in $BTC unit price.

Mining fees are 1% of the total mining incomeBitcoins revenue is 99% of total mining income pic.twitter.com/Hxey0WHzvG

— fil₿fil₿ (@filbfilb) February 10, 2019

This is an interesting debate because Bitcoin will be experiencing a new halving in 2020. That means that the number of BTC issued per block will decrease from 12.5 to 6.25. That means that fees will be playing a more active role in the future. If Bitcoin price does not grow as expected, miners will start to see their revenue drop. Mining fees could be a good tool for miners to keep being profitable in the future. This is all in light of VISA and Mastercard in talks of ramping up credit card fees as well.

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