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Bitcoin (BTC) reached a milestone of $87,588, with mining revenues hitting $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, marking a 42% increase from the previous quarter. This trend is expected to continue into Q1 2025, with projections of approximately $3.6 billion, based on data from Coin Metrics.
The rise in revenue signals a stabilization of miners' earnings after the Bitcoin network's “halving” in April 2024, which reduced the mining reward per block from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Halvings, occurring every four years, cut the number of BTC mined per block in half.
Coin Metrics said in its Q1 2025 report that, nearly one year after the halving, miners have experienced a period of stabilization, adjusting to the reduced rewards, narrower profit margins, and changing operational conditions.
However, Ben Yorke, vice president of Ecosystem at WOO X, a Web3 startup, warned that ongoing trade wars could undermine miners' profitability. If semiconductor tariffs were reintroduced, it could drive up costs for Bitcoin miners, consolidating power in the hands of larger players and potentially forcing smaller miners to shut down.
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Source: Coin Metrics
Adapting post-halving
Bitcoin miners faced challenges in 2025 as falling cryptocurrency prices further stressed their business models, compounded by the effects of the April halving. Despite these challenges, well-funded miners have adapted, with Bitcoin's hashrate — the total computing power securing the network — reaching record highs in January, according to CoinWarz data.
To cope with these pressures, miners have made various adjustments, such as upgrading to more energy-efficient ASICs (specialized hardware for Bitcoin mining) and relocating to regions with cheaper and more abundant renewable energy sources, including parts of Africa and Latin America. Additionally, some miners are diversifying their operations into AI data-center hosting, repurposing their infrastructure for high-performance computing needs. For example, Core Scientific, a Bitcoin miner, committed 200 megaWatts of hardware capacity to support CoreWeave's AI workloads.
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Source: Coin Metrics
For the long-term sustainability of mining incentives, Coin Metrics suggests that more transaction activity on the Bitcoin network could help maintain miner profitability as block rewards decline. Increased participation from high-value or time-sensitive transactions could boost fee revenues for miners. However, Coin Metrics also highlighted that transactions under $100 currently account for about 60% of Bitcoin's total transaction volume. This reflects a shift, with more Bitcoin holders treating it as a store of value rather than a medium of exchange.
The report also pointed out that Bitcoin's supply velocity — the ratio of adjusted transfer volume to its current supply — has decreased over time, reinforcing the idea that BTC is increasingly being held rather than actively transacted.