The Bitcoin halving in April 2024 directly demonstrated what a "roller coaster" feels like for miners. The block reward was cut from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, and daily revenue dropped from $21 million to $7 million at one point. Many small and medium-sized mining farms were seriously considering shutting down at that time. But this is not the whole story.

By mid to late 2025, Bitcoin's price broke through $120,000, and miners' income began to rebound, even reaching new highs. This reflects a reality: how sensitive miner profits are to the coin price. At the same time, the halving acted like a ruthless sieve—low-cost, high-efficiency mining farms survived, while inefficient ones either restructured or exited.

Even more interesting is the change in revenue structure. Previously, transaction fees were almost negligible in miners' earnings, accounting for only 6% before the 2020 halving. Now? The proportion has skyrocketed to 35%-40%, and in some popular blocks, transaction fees even exceeded the new coin rewards themselves. During the peak of the Bitcoin Rune Protocol in 2024, a single transaction fee surged to $127. Although it later declined, what does this indicate? It shows that the more active the network, the more miners can earn.

This shift means that miner profitability can no longer rely solely on system-issued new coins; it must depend on the network's usage intensity. In other words, without transaction fee income as a safety net, many mining farms cannot cover their costs relying only on block rewards after the halving.