Report: Bitcoin miners earned $16.7 billion in 2021

In 2021, bitcoin miners’ revenue amounted to $16.7 billion, while Ethereum miners earned $23.4 billion — about 40% higher, according to the annual report ForkLog.

The share of transaction fees in bitcoin miners’ revenue has declined steadily since spring and did not exceed 3% in the second half of the year. Over the year, the average network fee fell by 83.5%.

In the Ethereum network, in the second half of the year fee revenue rose rapidly amid the DeFi surge and the NFT boom. In record-breaking November ($3.59 billion), fee income surpassed the revenue from ETH blocks. A similar pattern was observed in February, but against much smaller figures.

In 2021, Ethereum miners also earned $730 million in the form of Miner Extractable Value (MEV).

The rise in earnings for the two leading cryptocurrencies since midsummer was accompanied by a recovery of hash rate after the drop caused by China’s mining ban. The Bitcoin network hashrate hit a fresh high in early December. However, the mining difficulty, which correlates with it, did not reach a record high registered in May.

Ethereum’s hash rate rose by 210% over the year.

Sponsor of the column “Bitcoin Industry in Numbers” — the global blockchain ecosystem Binance.

In light of developments, the exit of miners from China pushed the United States to the lead in the Bitcoin hash-rate share at 35.4%. Kazakhstan ranked second with 18.1%, and Russia held third place in the rankings — 11.2%.