Ethereum miners are now counting their blessings – and earnings. According to Glassnode, on February 5th, ETH miners managed to earn $3.74 million in just one hour. This is the highest ever hourly revenue for the network.
The report also mentions that the total mining revenue for that same day went over $55 million, which represents a new ATH for ETH. Miners are now earning more than they ever had with gas-heavy smart contract operations occupying more of the network’s resources.
This means that the revenue from mining is now more than double what it was back in 2018 when ETH reached its old ATH of $1,400.
The Gas Crisis
The profitability for miners is strongly connected with the increase in gas prices which also reached an ATH.
It was reported that the average cost for a transaction on Ethereum reached a new high level of $25 on February 5th. The price has now dropped to $23.80 but it doesn’t look like it will retreat much more for the next few days, at least.
Since 2021 started, the average transaction fee has increased by close to 600%. This made minor operations and transfers on this network utterly unsustainable.
He also went on to say that this will push any new players away from joining the Ethereum-based DeFi ecosystem. This will also push people towards cheaper rivals, like Polkadot or Binance Smart Chain.
Ethereum’s ATH Price
But there is good news too, as ETH holders and stakers celebrate the new ATH. During the early hours of February 9th, ETH hit a new price record of $1,780. This represents an increase of 10% in just one day and of 27% over a week.