According to Cointelegraph, analytics firm Glassnode has warned of potential problems for Bitcoin miners after the next block subsidy halving in its latest weekly newsletter, 'The Week On-Chain'. The firm noted that Bitcoin miner competition is at an all-time high, with hash rate at record levels. Ordinal inscriptions are currently helping miners by turning empty blockspace into a source of revenue. However, the proportion of income received from fees remains modest by historical standards, and the amount of hashrate competing for rewards has increased by 50% since February.
Glassnode predicts that the upcoming halving in April 2024, which will see miner rewards per block drop by 50%, could put the majority of the mining market into severe income stress. The so-called 'production cost' per BTC will double, passing $30,000, which is above the current spot price. Some analysts, such as Filbfilb, co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, are more optimistic about how miners will handle the build-up to the halving, suggesting that miners will increase BTC accumulation in advance of the event.
