Bitcoin mining faces surging power demands and record-low fees

The Bitcoin community is increasing on an industrial scale, with power-hungry mining rigs driving power consumption to unprecedented highs even because the circulate of transactions slows to a trickle. But, the community appears to be below stress as rising hashrate and infrastructure collide with weak price income and uncommon mempool clearings that go away miners incomes little past the block subsidy.

The Bitcoin (BTC) community is coming into a section of putting contrasts: its urge for food for electrical energy is hovering, whereas the financial rewards for miners are below strain from low transaction exercise. A brand new report by GoMining Institutional, seen by crypto.information, sketches a panorama of accelerating power use, muted mining issue, and an unusually quiet on-chain atmosphere, elevating questions on how sustainable the present trajectory could be.

In line with the report, the community’s estimated power consumption has grown at what researchers described as “an unprecedented tempo.” Drawing on information from CoinMetrics Labs, GoMining notes that Bitcoin mining energy use rose from 15.6 gigawatts (GW) in January 2024 to 24.5 GW in January 2025. By the tip of Could 2025, it had climbed once more to 33.1 GW, a greater than 100% enhance in simply 17 months.

A lot of that surge has been concentrated within the early a part of 2025. “The January-to-Could leap alone — a 35% rise in power demand — displays each heightened deployment of extra energy-dense mining infrastructure following the April halving,” the report reads.

Trade analysts cited within the report recommend that though particular person mining rigs are extra environment friendly than ever, their proliferation is overwhelming these features. “Effectivity features on the machine degree are more and more offset by the sheer quantity of deployed {hardware},” the report mentioned, including that the significance of innovation now extends past ASIC design to how and the place miners supply their energy.

Steepest decline since 2021

The accelerating power use comes because the community’s mining issue — an indicator of how onerous it’s to confirm new blocks — has been comparatively subdued. The primary half of 2025 noticed 13 issue changes, with the metric rising from 109.78 trillion initially of the 12 months to 116.96 trillion by the tip of June. That represents a year-to-date enhance of simply 6.54%, with a mean month-to-month climb of 1.09%.

The report frames this slowdown towards 2024’s fast growth, when issue rose 4.48% per 30 days on common. The relative calm in 2025 was punctuated by moments of volatility: a 6.81% upward adjustment on April 5 and a 4.38% enhance on Could 30 pushed issue to an all-time excessive of 126.98 trillion. However that peak shortly gave technique to a pointy reversal.

By late June, warmth waves throughout North America compelled some operators to restrict exercise, sending hashrate down by 147 EH/s. “Bitcoin’s issue adjusted downward by -7.48%, the steepest decline since July 2021,” the report famous, drawing a comparability to the post-China mining ban period.

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If the community’s energy draw is climbing, its transaction layer tells the other story. On-chain exercise within the first half of 2025 has slumped to ranges not seen since October 2023. The seven-day shifting common of each day transactions additionally fell to about 313,510 by June 25, with a low of 256,000 confirmed transactions on June 1.

That weak point has translated into traditionally low charges. All year long, customers have been in a position to broadcast transactions on the naked minimal price of 1 satoshi per digital byte, no matter precedence. “All through H1, there have been a number of events when transactions — no matter precedence degree — could possibly be broadcast for the naked minimal price of simply 1 sat/vB, highlighting the persistently low demand for blockspace throughout the community,” the report mentioned.

Ghosted mempool

The atmosphere has produced a uncommon phenomenon: a completely cleared mempool. The mempool — a ready space for unconfirmed transactions — emptied twice in 2025 for the primary time in practically two years. The final comparable occasion was in April 2023, when Ordinals and BRC-20 token exercise had not but crowded block area to present norms.

When the mempool clears, the report notes, miners briefly function with “virtually no transaction price income,” relying virtually solely on the block subsidy. That dynamic underlines one in every of Bitcoin’s long-term financial questions. Because the mounted subsidy halves roughly each 4 years — finally disappearing solely — the community will depend on transaction charges to maintain miners. Low-fee environments, whereas welcome for customers, can pinch operators already grappling with excessive power prices.

Bitcoin’s mempool | Supply: GoMining

For Bitcoin miners, the strain between rising energy demand and thinning income is turning into tougher to disregard. Excessive warmth in key U.S. mining areas has already demonstrated the fragility of hashrate below environmental strain. In the meantime, the doubling of community power consumption since early 2024 hints at infrastructure scaling quicker than transaction exercise or price earnings.

Trade observers recommend that this paradox could persist. Mining corporations proceed to deploy energy-dense fleets to safe the community and seize block rewards, however their long-term economics are tethered to elements outdoors their management, community exercise, consumer demand for block area, and the tempo of Bitcoin’s programmed halvings, that are anticipated to proceed roughly each 4 years till round 2140, when the ultimate BTC is projected to be mined and the block subsidy drops to zero.

Learn extra: Bitmain to launch first U.S. Bitcoin mining chip manufacturing unit by 2026: Bloomberg