May will be the month with the most commissions for Bitcoin miners in 2 years

So far in May 2023, Bitcoin miners have received more than $2 million in almost every day. Only the first two days were a little below that figure, which clearly marks the positive moment that the industry is experiencing.

The last time Bitcoin miners received such a stream of transaction fees was in July 2021, according to data from The Block. Nevertheless, to find several days of commissions above USD 2 million, you have to go back to May of that year.

At that time, it should be clarified, bitcoin was trading above USD 50,000. The situation at the time of closing this note —similar to what it was throughout May— is different, with bitcoin (BTC) trading at USD 26,785, according to the CriptoNoticias price index.

Therefore, this increase in transaction fees is due to an actual increase in bitcoins miners receive. This is confirmed by statistics provided by the mining firm Braiins, which indicate that the percentage of these commissions reached an average of 78% of the block rewards granted by the network on May 8.

The $2 million miners received in fees in May is equivalent to between 70 and 90 bitcoins per day, according to the price of the cryptocurrency in each day. Between May 25 and 26, for example, approximately 93 BTC were paid in commissions, indicates mempool.space.

The great cause of this panorama are the BRC-20 tokens, which in turn emerged from the Ordinals protocol. These are new methods for hosting data (text, images, videos, etc.) in different sections of Bitcoin transactions. Such tools lead to the issuance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other types of tokens, such as memecoins and stablecoins, on the network, leading to increased activity to levels not seen in a long time.

Bitcoin miners recover from a complex 2022

In this newspaper, it was reported over the last few months how the situation for Bitcoin miners evolved, while the network was going through one of the most important congestions in recent years. In April, they achieved the maximum return in a year, thanks to an increase in commissions which only subsided in mid-May.

So, Bitcoin miners recover from a 2022 that brought losses for many of them. While the large companies had no problem surviving, the bear market forced smaller miners to sell their reserves and even part with their equipment in order to pay maintenance costs.