Bitcoin Miners Earned $184M in Fees in Q2, Exceeding All of 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) miners experienced a significant boost in earnings during the second quarter, raking in a staggering $184 million from transaction fees. This amount far exceeds their earnings from the entirety of 2022, thanks to the surge in Bitcoin's price and the flourishing BRC-20 tokens.

According to a report from cryptocurrency analytics platform Coin Metrics on July 5, this $184 million payout marks a remarkable 270% increase from the first quarter of 2023. It also represents the first quarter to surpass the $100 million milestone since Q2 2021.

In Q2, Bitcoin miners earned more from transaction fees than they did in the previous five quarters combined. This surge can be attributed to Bitcoin's recent price rally, which bolstered their top-line revenues. Additionally, the introduction of BRC-20, a new token standard on the Bitcoin network introduced in March, played a role in boosting transaction fees. BRC-20 utilizes Ordinals inscriptions to mint and transfer fungible tokens on the network, enabling experimental new use cases for Bitcoin's core transaction types.

Despite the substantial increase in transaction fees, it is important to note that they accounted for only 7.7% of the total $2.4 billion earned by miners over the quarter. Nevertheless, this surge in fees demonstrates the growing demand with Bitcoin network.