Bitcoin's hash rate surges significantly alongside a 288% spike in average network fees

Bitcoin's value surge and the consequent rise in transaction fees have led to lucrative profits for miners.

Over the past 11 days, average transaction fees on the Bitcoin network have surged by 288%, reaching 65.8 satoshis per virtual byte (sats/vB) or 0.00018 BTC, equating to $11.64 per transaction. The median transaction fee stands at 0.000091 BTC ($6) or 33.9 sats/vB, marking a 443.97% increase during the same period.

Despite a decrease in daily transaction volume since February 12, hovering below 425,000 transactions per day, this trend has enabled miners to effectively manage the growing backlog of unconfirmed transactions, currently numbering around 135,000. The rise in BTC prices and on-chain fees has boosted mining profitability, with daily earnings for one petahash per second (PH/s) of mining power increasing from $80 to over $100 since February 25. However, the hash price remains below its December 17, 2023, 12-month peak of $133 per PH/s per day.

This situation highlights the delicate balance between transaction costs, mining profitability, and network congestion, reflecting the growing demand and the network's resilience despite scalability challenges.