Bitcoin miners have recorded their highest level of monthly earnings ahead of the upcoming halving event, which would likely cut their profit margins in half unless the price of bitcoin increases significantly.

The bitcoin halving is only weeks away and bitcoin miners are likely bracing for shrinking profit margins and a harsher economic landscape to operate in. In the run up to the event, however, miners have seen the highest level of monthly revenue in history, in what may well be one last hurrah before the pain sets in.

Data from The Block shows that bitcoin miners earned $2.01 billion worth of revenue in March, with $85.81 million coming from transaction fees and $1.93 billion from the block subsidy.

These figures put monthly revenue at a record high, surpassing the previous peak of $1.74 billion that miners earned in revenue in May 2021.

US-based bitcoin mining pool Foundry accounted for the most amount of bitcoin mined over the last month, with 1,300 blocks or 29.4% of all blocks mined over the month. Coming in second, AntPool mined 997 bitcoin blocks and accounted for 22.41% of bitcoin mined.

ViaBTC and F2Pool mined 575 blocks and 548 blocks respectively, while smaller mining pools, including Marathon Digital’s Mara Pool and Binance’s mining pool accounted for less than 5% of the total blocks mined.

For the time being, miners receive 6.25 BTC per block mined, but the bitcoin halving this April will reduce that to 3.125 BTC per block. Essentially, this means that profit per-block for miners will be cut in half, unless the price of bitcoin sees a significant rise. 

Based on the trajectory of the last few market cycles, the price of bitcoin doesn’t increase until several weeks after the halving. Law firm Holland and Knight notes that cash-strapped miners might really start to face the pressure, and the industry could see strategic mergers between some of these players.

There’s a chance that history won’t repeat itself, and that bitcoin’s price could move higher much sooner than most are anticipating, particularly given the fact that supply and demand dynamics are vastly different in light of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Data from Bitwise shows that spot bitcoin ETFs bought 66,008 BTC in March, far exceeding the 25,513 BTC produced by miners over the month. 

Halving coming in hot in ~2 weeks and demand already exceeding supply by >2x pic.twitter.com/25LCPu4svr

— Gayatri (@GayatriPC_) April 1, 2024