Falling Transaction Fees Put Bitcoin Miners Under Pressure

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Bitget Academy2025/03/21 05:27

By:Bitget Academy

Bitcoin miners are struggling as revenue drops due to declining transaction fees and lower earnings per unit of computing power (hashprice). In February, Bitcoin’s hashprice fell to $45/PH/s, erasing gains from the U.S. election cycle. At the same time, transaction fees made up only 1.3% of block rewards—the lowest level since 2022—making mining less profitable.

Despite Bitcoin’s hashrate growing 3.8% to 810 EH/s, competition in the mining space is slowing, and inefficient miners are feeling financial pressure. Many rely on cost-effective strategies like hosting agreements to stay afloat. AI data centers are also increasing competition for energy and resources.

Major mining companies, including Marathon Digital (MARA) and CleanSpark, expanded their operations, while others, like HIVE Digital and Cipher Mining, sold Bitcoin to fund growth. However, mining stocks suffered, with the combined market cap of 15 leading firms dropping from $36 billion in January to $22 billion in March. Some companies saw losses of over 40%.

With rising energy costs and lower mining rewards, miners may need Bitcoin prices to rise significantly to regain stability.

Source: CoinDesk

Futures Market Updates

In the past 24 hours, both BTC and ETH futures saw declines in open interest and trading volume, with ETH experiencing a sharper drop in volume (-36.76%) compared to BTC (-19.95%). BTC futures maintained a nearly even long/short ratio (49.99%/50.01%), while ETH showed a slight short bias (49.71% long vs. 50.29% short). Liquidations were higher for BTC ($63.95M total) than ETH ($33.32M total), with long positions facing greater losses in both markets. ETH's funding rate (0.0054%) remained higher than BTC’s (0.0020%), indicating stronger demand for leveraged long positions despite the overall decline in market activity.

BTC Futures Updates

Total BTC Open Interest: $53.27B (-3.05%)

BTC Volume (24H): $84.67B (-19.95%)

BTC Liquidations (24H): $46.63M (Long)/$17.32M (Short)

Long/Short Ratio: 49.99%/50.01%

Funding Rate: 0.0020%

ETH Futures Updates

Total ETH Open Interest: $19.88B (-3.99%)

ETH Volume (24H): $30.25B (-36.76%)

ETH Liquidations (24H): $23.94M (Long)/$9.38M (Short)

Long/Short Ratio: 49.71%/50.29%

Funding Rate: 0.0054%

Top 3 OI Surges

L3: $3.21M (+188.18%)

BANANA: $41.69M (+128.82%)

MAJOR: $4.05M (+105.55%)

Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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