Bitcoin miners posted a notably stronger month in March, with network data showing a continued recovery in mining revenue alongside a fresh record in hashrate. Over the last 30 days, the Bitcoin network produced 4,498 blocks and issued 28,112 newly minted BTC. During the same period, miners generated an estimated $734.78 million in total revenue, marking one of the best monthly readings since before June 2022.
The figures suggest that mining economics improved steadily through the first quarter. March outperformed the prior three months by a clear margin, reinforcing the view that miner revenue has been trending upward since December. The latest data also underscores how rising network participation and stronger output values can coexist with intensifying competition across mining pools.
Revenue Continued to Improve Month Over Month
Of the $734.78 million earned by miners in March, approximately $712.12 million came from newly issued bitcoin tied to block rewards. Another $22.66 million was generated from transaction fees. While fees still represented a relatively small share of overall miner income, they added a meaningful contribution to total revenue during the month.
On a month-over-month basis, the increase was significant. March’s mining revenue exceeded February’s $627 million, January’s $601 million, and December’s $477 million. This sequence points to a sustained rebound rather than a one-off spike. For miners, that kind of improvement matters because it helps offset the pressure created by rising competition, hardware costs, and the network’s automatic difficulty adjustments.
The data does not imply that mining has become easy. Rather, it shows that higher aggregate revenue has coincided with a more competitive environment. As more hashpower comes online, each participant is effectively fighting for a smaller share of block production, even if the total revenue pool is expanding.
Foundry USA and Antpool Led the Mining Pool Rankings
March was also notable for the concentration of hashpower among the largest mining pools. Foundry USA remained the dominant player, discovering 1,468 blocks during the month and producing 9,175 new bitcoins. Its share of network hashrate stood at roughly 32.64%, and at the time of reporting the pool was operating with around 105 EH/s of hashpower.
Antpool ranked second, finding 910 blocks in March and producing 5,687.5 BTC. Combined, Foundry USA and Antpool accounted for about 52.87% of the global hashrate during the month. That means more than half of Bitcoin’s total computational power was concentrated in just two pools, highlighting the continued importance of large-scale operators in the current mining landscape.
Behind the top two were other established pools including F2Pool, Binance Pool, ViaBTC, BTC.com, Luxor, and Braiins Pool. Their presence confirms that the mining market remains active and diverse, but the gap between the largest players and the rest of the field remains meaningful. Pool dominance matters not only from a business perspective, but also because it shapes discussion around decentralization, operational resilience, and the distribution of block production across the network.
Hashrate Reached a New All-Time High
Beyond revenue, the standout network metric in March was hashrate. Over the latest 2,016 blocks—roughly the most recent two weeks—Bitcoin’s average network hashrate was around 341 EH/s. Yet the month also delivered a major milestone: on March 25, 2023, Bitcoin’s hashrate climbed to an all-time high of 414.34 EH/s.
That record matters because hashrate is a core measure of total computational power securing the network. A higher hashrate generally signals stronger miner participation and a more robust security profile, though it also intensifies the competitive environment for individual miners. As hashpower rises, the protocol responds by recalibrating mining difficulty to keep average block times near ten minutes.
Because block intervals had been running below the ten-minute target, the next difficulty adjustment was expected on April 6, 2023. At the time, estimates pointed to an increase of roughly 1.20% to 1.38% above the current difficulty level of 46.84 trillion. A higher difficulty would further raise the computational threshold required to mine new blocks, continuing the cycle in which stronger network participation leads to tighter competition.
A Very Different Market From Three Years Ago
The latest metrics look even more striking when compared with conditions three years earlier. In April 2020, Bitcoin’s hashrate had only just moved beyond the 100 EH/s range. By comparison, today’s level is about 240% higher than it was at that time. The network has therefore expanded dramatically in both scale and security over a relatively short period.
Miner revenue has also changed substantially. In April 2020, total monthly miner revenue was around $412.42 million, and transaction fees contributed only about $6.07 million of that amount. Compared with March’s $734.78 million in total revenue and $22.66 million in fees, the contrast shows how much the mining economy has grown.
These comparisons do not by themselves predict what comes next, but they do highlight the direction of travel. Bitcoin mining has become larger, more capital-intensive, and more competitive. At the same time, the network is processing enough economic activity to support a bigger overall reward pool for miners than was the case several years ago.
What the March Data Suggests
March’s results point to a mining sector that is recovering in revenue terms while simultaneously pushing into new territory on hashrate. The combination is important. Rising revenue gives miners stronger near-term economic support, but record hashrate and an expected difficulty increase show that this support is being met by an equally strong influx of competition.
In practical terms, the March numbers illustrate a network that is both healthier and harder to mine. Large pools such as Foundry USA and Antpool continue to command an outsized share of global hashpower, while the protocol’s self-adjusting difficulty mechanism keeps the system balanced as more machines come online. For market observers, the key takeaway is that Bitcoin mining in March was defined by two parallel trends: higher earnings and higher competition.
Whether that trend continues will depend on future changes in bitcoin’s market value, transaction fee activity, and the pace at which additional mining capacity enters the network. But based on the March statistics alone, miners closed the month with stronger revenue, a more powerful network, and a new benchmark for total hashrate.