July 2023 marked the highest-ever Bitcoin hashrate peak. It happened on Saturday 8 July, when it reached over 500 Eh/s for the first time ever. For comparison, the weekly average a year ago was 200. That peak lasted only a few hours on 8 July, and since it is only an estimate, it is a number that should be treated with caution.
By using weekly averages, which are a more reliable estimate, the peak happened on 11 July at 410 Eh/s. That’s still more than double the level of a year ago. On the other hand, the daily averages show that the all-time record was set on 8 July with 465 Eh/s.
It is important to note that the difficulty also hit its all-time high in July, partly because the difficulty increases as the hashrate does. It is not surprising that the difficulty peak was achieved on 12 July, shortly after the hashrate peaks, since the difficulty only changes once every two weeks or so.
The inevitable hashrate reduction caused it to drop below 54T at the end of the month after getting close to 60T. After approaching 60T, the difficulty then dropped below 54T at the end of the month as a result of the inevitable decrease in hashrate.
Interestingly, despite the increase in difficulty, miner profits also rose. Typically, when difficulty increases, so do miner costs. And since revenues are generally stable, an increase in difficulty usually results in lower profits.
Mining Profits Also on the Rise
However, compared to $0.07 per day per Th/s in June, Bitcoin mining profitability increased to almost $0.08 in July. In fact, revenues also increased. In July, miners collected a total of $844.5 million, nearly $61 million more than in June. It’s worth noting that July has an extra day, so even just for that reason, the total monthly receipts should be 3% higher. But in July, the total receipts for Bitcoin miners increased by 7%.
The $844.5 million total is made up of $18.8 million from fees and the rest from block rewards. So it’s clear that the increase is not due to higher fees collected, but simply to a higher market value of BTC in July compared to June.
After all, in June the average price of BTC was well below $30,000, while in July it was around that level. In other words, Bitcoin mining during this period is doing quite well.
The lowest point in recent years for Bitcoin mining profitability was between November and December 2022 when the price of BTC was around $16,000. It’s worth noting that it was around $0.06 per Th/s per day, compared to almost $0.08 today. So even during that difficult time, Bitcoin mining never faced a significant risk.
