The share of fees in Bitcoin miners' revenues 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%, approaching a ten-year low. This is an alarming signal for the entire ecosystem of the first cryptocurrency, which I closely monitor in my analytical practice.
The metric has remained below the 1% threshold for nearly a year. The last time comparable values were recorded was when Bitcoin traded below $400. In April of this year, the fee share even dropped to 0.52%.
Currently, the main source of reward for miners remains the block subsidy of 3.125 BTC, which was halved after the halving in April 2024. This revenue structure makes network participants extremely vulnerable to price volatility.
Mining Becomes Unprofitable
Of particular concern is the ratio of production costs to market price. 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. Unprofitable production is a direct incentive to shut down capacity.
The network hash rate has already collapsed by 33% from the peak values of October 2025 — from 1.3 ZH/s to 898 EH/s. This is one of the largest declines in computing power in blockchain history.
Analysts attribute the trend to falling margins and the reorientation of public mining companies toward AI workloads and high-performance computing. Automatic difficulty adjustments have so far failed to reverse the trend, and hashprice remains at $31.6 per PH/s per day.
Some experts call what is happening "the least discussed alarming event for Bitcoin in 2026," noting that the decline in hash rate has accelerated since April.
My conclusion: we are witnessing not just a cyclical correction, but a structural shift. If the fee share remains at its current level, network security becomes hostage solely to the Bitcoin price. This increases the risks of mining consolidation in the hands of large players with access to cheap energy, which in the long term could undermine decentralization — a key principle of Bitcoin.