According to data from Blockchain Analytics firm, Coin Metrics, Bitcoin miners earned over $354 million in revenue last week. That is the highest level ever recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain, surpassing the previous record of $340 million set in mid-December 2017.
The surge in crypto prices has been reflected in the revenue amassed by miners with recent data showing they were able to bring in $1.09 billion in January. That was $70 million more than the $1.02 billion that miners earned in January 2018 on the heels of a boom-bust cycle for bitcoin, which saw the crypto currency's price peak at $20,000 before losing half its value in a little more than a month.
February’s figures are on track to surpass the record monthly revenue of $1.25 billion for bitcoin miners recorded in December 2017.
"Despite decreasing block reward, mining revenue on a USD basis has trended upwards. This is encouraging for the long term prospects of Bitcoin’s security and continued investments over the next few halving," Ethan Vera, Co-founder of Luxor Technology told CoinDesk.
Miners Are Not Complaining
Although mining bitcoin is finally profitable again, recently the business has become more expensive due to a bidding war for mining equipment. The rising tide of Bitcoin prices allows buyers of the latest ASIC machines to resell them at premiums of at least 70 percent.
Bitcoin mining is a very competitive industry as miners worldwide are verifying transactions while securing the network for economic incentives. Additionally, the global demand is growing in lockstep with Bitcoin price, which has not shown signs of slowing. The abrupt upside movement of the bitcoin price, which surged almost 50% in February, will pretty much mean solid business for crypto miners as they are making a lot of money confirming blocks.
Continuing its upward rally amid heightened interest from bigger investors, traders are now eyeing the psychological $50,000 per bitcoin level sooner than later. The current rally is taking the popular cryptocurrency’s gains to more than 1,000% off the March 2020 low.
As a result, the latest gains took the combined value of all the bitcoin tokens in circulation past $990 billion for the first time, according to industry website CoinMarketCap.
