Bitcoin Miners Earn Record Hourly Revenue of $4M

Bitcoin's price rally is proving a windfall for the miners of the world's biggest blockchain.

Miners collected a record single-hour revenue of $4.06 million during the 60 minutes to 17:00 UTC on Thursday, according to data provided by the blockchain analytics firm Glassnode. Transaction fees accounted for more than $47,000 of the record hourly revenue.

Miners use powerful computers to solve complex mathematical problems to mine blocks and confirm transactions on the publicly distributed ledger. As a reward for their services, miners receive newly created bitcoins along with transaction processing fees.

Currently, miners are paid 6.25 bitcoin BTC$88,535.46 for every block mined. The number was reduced by 50% in May 2020 via a process called mining reward halving, which is repeated every four years.

While hourly income reached a lifetime high on Thursday, daily revenue hit a three-year high of $50.78 million earlier this week, marking at least a fivefold increase since mid-October, reflecting the rise in the price of BTC during that period.

Income earned through transaction fees has also increased substantially over the past few months, reaching a $9.14 million on Feb. 9.

Turnovers have risen sharply, with bitcoin's price rallying by nearly 400% to record levels above $48,000 in the past four months.

Also read: Bitcoin Miners Saw Revenue Rise 62% in January From December

Miners' revenue could continue to rise throughout 2021 and beyond, as traders foresee a pick up in corporate demand in the wake of Tesla's decision to buy the cryptocurrency, leading to a stronger price rally. The percentage of revenue earned through transaction fees could rise, with payment giants such as Mastercard announcing support for cryptocurrencies.