Bitcoin Miner Fees Drop to 0.69%, Lowest in 10 Years

Transaction fees accounted for 0.69% of Bitcoin miner revenue, the lowest share in 10 years, according to onchain analytics firm Glassnode. The network’s hash rate has fallen about 33% since October 2025 as many operators reallocate compute capacity to artificial intelligence workloads.

Glassnode’s fee-share metric fell as low as 0.52% in April, returning fee revenue proportions to levels last seen in 2016. With fees small, miners depend on the fixed block subsidy of 3.125 BTC per mined block for most income. The U.S. dollar value of that subsidy has fallen after Bitcoin’s price declined nearly 50% from its October 2025 peak.

Onchain resource Checkonchain estimated the average cost to produce one Bitcoin at $78,254 as of Tuesday, about 23% above the current spot price. The higher production cost and a weaker price outlook have reduced miner margins.

Network computing power has dropped from roughly 1.3 zettahashes per second in October 2025 to about 861 exahashes per second, a decline of roughly 33%. Mining difficulty eased as hash rate fell but has recently shown signs of rising again.

Several public miners have shifted some operations to AI and high-performance computing. CleanSpark repurposed portions of its data center capacity to run AI workloads after missing profit targets. Keel Infrastructure suspended all U.S. mining operations after revenue fell 50% in the second quarter.

Independent analyst William Clemente wrote that automated difficulty adjustments would normally encourage miners to increase activity, but that many operators have chosen AI or HPC because those services can be more profitable for public companies.

Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft wrote on X that fees have been below 1% of miner revenue for nearly a year and added, “Bitcoin was below $400 the last time fee share was this low.”

Charles Edwards of Capriole Investments wrote on X that the trend accelerated since April and called it “the least talked about, concerning Bitcoin development in 2026.”

Analysts warn that lower fee revenue reduces one of the incentives for miners to validate transactions and that a sustained diversion of compute to AI could affect network security and decentralization if it leads to consolidation or long-term declines in hash power.

Transaction fees have historically risen with on-chain congestion and fallen when demand eased. Observers continue to monitor how miner strategies change as market prices, energy costs and demand for AI compute affect revenue incentives.