miners

As the Bitcoin network hash rate tops 414 EH/s, miners are struggling to stay afloat amid plummeting profitability.

Bitcoin mining revenue or “hash price” — a measure of dollars earned per TH/s per day — has slumped to levels not seen since the collapse of FTX in November 2022, while hash rate has reached new highs. 

Over the past week, Bitcoin network hash rate topped 414 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Aug. 18 marking a new peak for the metric.

The peak has seen network hash rate surging 54% from what it was at the beginning of 2023 and 80% over the past 12 months, according to Blockchain.com.

However, while the network looks good in terms of security, things are not so rosy for Bitcoin miners as revenue has fallen sharply, hitting levels when BTC fell to a market cycle low of around $16,500 in November 2022.

According to HashPriceIndex, revenue is just $0.060 per terahash per second per day, around half of what it was in early May when the Bitcoin Ordinals inscription frenzy caused a heavy demand for block space.

Market analyst Dylan LeClair commented on the falling revenue and hash rate peak stating that more efficient new rigs will keep being produced, “but it's almost time for the price to outpace,” meaning that prices need to adjust upwards to keep mining profitable at such high hash rates.

Related: Bitcoin miners need BTC price over $98K by the halving

Bitcoin miners have reportedly been relying on funds from stock sales in the second quarter to keep them afloat during the bear market.

On Aug. 24, Bloomberg reported that the 12 major publicly traded miners raised about $440 million through stock sales in Q2.

Major $BTC miners are in BIG trouble heading to the halving

To avoid selling the ~$900M BTC they're hoarding, miners relied on debt and diluting shareholders

Now those lifelines are drying up. Soon their only option is dumping into the markethttps://t.co/I27tvV4kxu

— Rho Rider (@RhoRider) August 26, 2023

Mark Jeftovic, who runs the Bitcoin Capitalist newsletter, said “Some mining companies are diluting shareholders at an excessive rate,” before adding “If they are diluting you faster than Bitcoin is going up, then you are going the wrong way on a treadmill.”

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon