Bitcoin miners set a new record for weekly revenue after bringing in $354.4 million last week.
- Mining revenue growth was helped by the leading cryptocurrency's performance last week following a string of positive developments, culminating in bitcoin hitting new record highs over the weekend just below $50,000.
- "Despite [a] decreasing block reward, mining revenue on a USD basis has trended upwards," said Ethan Vera, co-founder of Seattle-based mining company Luxor Technology, in a direct message with CoinDesk. "This is encouraging for the long-term prospects of Bitcoin’s security and continued investments" over the next few halvings.
- Weekly revenue eclipsed the previous record of $340 million set in mid-December 2017 near the peak of bitcoin's prior bullish market cycle. CoinDesk revenue estimates based on network fees and block subsidy data from Coin Metrics assume miners sell their bitcoins immediately.
- Over 15% of the week's revenue was from network fees, continuing a trend of strong growth in fee-based revenue from May 2020, per CoinDesk's prior reporting.
- "Our miners are incredibly bullish on the future of mining," Vera told CoinDesk. "January and February 2021 have been record months for most of them, and they are taking all of their profits and reinvesting it back into their business to grow future hashrate."