As a direct result of falling Bitcoin (BTC) prices, total revenue earned by miners in transaction fees and mining rewards dropped to its one-year lows at nearly $15 million on July 4. However, a concurrent fall in graphic cards or GPU prices is set to help miners offset their operational costs amid an ongoing bear market.
Bitcoin mining revenue fell 79.6% over a period of 9 months, ever since reaching an all-time high of $74.4 million on Oct. 25, 2021. In addition, a global chip shortage and the coronavirus pandemic shot up prices of the most important part of a mining rig – the graphics processing unit (GPU) – further impacting the miners’ bottom line.
Bitcoin mining revenue over the past year. Source: Blockchain.com
With card manufacturers resuming operations across the world, GPU prices have seen a massive decline with some cards selling for below MSRPs. In May alone, GPU prices dropped over 15% on average as supply exceeded the market demand. Moreover, the recent influx in GPUs has forced sellers on the secondary markets to bring down their exorbitant prices on used mining rigs.
GPU price trend over the past one year. Source: TechSpot
Cointelegraph previously reported that several public Bitcoin miners are well-positioned to survive the prolonged bear market as the low revenue continues to sustain the operational costs of the mining facilities. As shown below, Argo, CleanSpark, Stronghold, Marathon and Roit are some of the miners with a stable mining revenue to operational cost ratio – a fair indication of good health.
Monthly operating cash flow vs. mining revenue. Source: Arcane Crypto
Moreover, the meteoric drop in GPU prices opened up a small window of opportunity for small-time miners to procure a piece of more powerful and efficient mining equipment. Coupled with lower hash rate requirements of 203.6 exa hashes per second, miners now require lower computing power to successfully mine a block on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Related: Marathon Digital keeps on mining despite BTC price slump
Despite the evident drop in mining revenue, Marathon Digital Holdings revealed to continue stacking BTC via mining while being “fairly well insulated and well-positioned.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Charlie Schumacher, VP of corporate communications at Marathon Digital, shared insights on their overall operations:
“For reference, in Q1 2022, our cost to produce a Bitcoin was approximately $6,200. We also have fixed pricing for power, so we are not subject to changes in the energy markets.”