Bitcoin miners' fee income has plummeted to an all-time low: what this means for the network
On August 11, the share of transaction fees in Bitcoin miners' revenue structure was only 0.69% — one of the lowest figures in the past ten years. Similar values were observed only in April, when the indicator dropped to 0.52%. Notably, fees have been providing less than 1% of the earnings of the first cryptocurrency's miners for a year now.
For context: the last time a comparable level was recorded was when Bitcoin traded below the $400 mark. Today, the bulk of miners' rewards comes from the block subsidy of 3.125 BTC, which was halved after the halving in April 2024.
Critical dependence on the price
Such a low share of fees makes network participants extremely vulnerable to price volatility. According to my calculations based on the Checkonchain model, the average cost of mining one Bitcoin on August 11 was $78,254. Meanwhile, digital gold is trading around $64,100, putting many miners on the brink of profitability.
Hashrate has collapsed by a third
The situation is exacerbated by a decline in the network's computing power. The hashrate has dropped by 33% from the peak values of October 2025 — from 1.3 ZH/s to 898 EH/s. This is an alarming signal that I associate with a decline in mining margins and the reorientation of some public companies' capacity toward AI workloads and high-performance computing.
Notably, automatic difficulty adjustments have not yet been able to reverse this trend. Some experts call what is happening "the most under-discussed alarming event for Bitcoin in 2026," noting that the hashrate decline has accelerated since April.
Mining profitability remains at extremely low levels: the hashprice is $31.6 per PH/s per day, only slightly below the figure from a week ago ($32.07). In early August, analysts recorded one of the longest periods of declining computing power in the network's history — 287 days.
My analysis: The current situation is not just a cyclical phenomenon but a structural shift. If the share of fees does not recover and the price does not follow the cost of mining, we may see further consolidation of the mining industry and the exit of inefficient players from the market. The question of network security is becoming more acute than ever.