Bitcoin Halving 2024: The Real Impact on Mining Profitability in 2026

On April 20, 2024, Bitcoin's fourth halving reduced the block subsidy from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This single event, hardcoded into Bitcoin's protocol since its inception, halved the daily revenue of every miner on the planet overnight. Now, two years on, we have a complete picture of what actually happened to mining economics — and what it means for anyone running or planning to run Bitcoin mining hardware heading toward the next halving in 2028.

What Exactly Happens at a Halving?

Every 210,000 blocks — approximately every four years — Bitcoin's protocol automatically reduces the reward miners receive for finding a valid block by 50%. At the 2024 halving (block 840,000), miners went from earning 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC. At a Bitcoin price of $65,000, that translates to a revenue drop from roughly $406,000 per block to $203,000 per block, assuming price stays constant.

The cumulative effect across the entire network is enormous. Before the halving, miners collectively earned approximately $25–30 million per day in block subsidies. Immediately after, that figure dropped to $12–15 million — offset only by a corresponding move in Bitcoin's price.

The "Miner Revenue" Cliff — And Who Fell Off

The halving exposed a stark divide between efficient and inefficient hardware. The profitability threshold — the electricity cost below which a miner operates at a net profit — changed dramatically overnight:

• Antminer S9 (14 TH/s, ~90 J/TH): Was borderline unprofitable before the halving at $0.05/kWh. Immediately after: firmly loss-making at any commercially available electricity rate. Mass retirements followed.
• Antminer S19 Pro (110 TH/s, ~30 J/TH): Still viable at electricity costs below $0.06–0.07/kWh, but the margin compressed significantly.
• Antminer S21 Pro (234 TH/s, ~15 J/TH): Remained profitable at electricity costs up to $0.08–0.10/kWh at $65,000+ BTC price, making it the clear winner of the post-halving era.

The broader lesson: hardware efficiency (measured in joules per terahash) became the single most important factor determining survival after the halving. Revenue per TH/s dropped by half, so the machines that used the least electricity per TH/s widened their advantage dramatically.

Network Hashrate: The Surprising Resilience

A common prediction before each halving is that a significant portion of hashrate will go offline as unprofitable miners shut down, causing a sustained difficulty drop. In reality, the network proved more resilient than expected.

Bitcoin's hashrate peaked at approximately 700 EH/s in early 2024 before the halving, dipped briefly to around 580 EH/s in the weeks following, then resumed its upward trend by Q3 2024. By early 2025 hashrate had exceeded 720 EH/s, and the growth continued through 2025 and into 2026 — now approaching and at times surpassing 900 EH/s — confirming that the halving triggered hardware consolidation, not network contraction.

Several factors explain this resilience:

• Pre-halving deployments: Large mining operations ordered next-generation S21 and M60S hardware months in advance, deploying it immediately after the halving to replace less efficient machines rather than reducing capacity.
• Geographic expansion: Mining operations in Ethiopia, Paraguay, and Argentina — with hydroelectric electricity at $0.02–0.04/kWh — remained profitable with older hardware that was unviable in North America.
• Transaction fee uplift: The Runes protocol launched on the halving block, generating extraordinary transaction fee revenue (over 37 BTC in fees in block 840,000 alone) that partially offset the subsidy reduction during the initial period.

Post-Halving Price Action and Its Effect on Profitability

Bitcoin's price at the time of the halving was approximately $63,000. By November 2024, it had exceeded $90,000, and briefly touched $100,000. This price appreciation fundamentally changed the post-halving profitability picture for miners who survived the initial margin compression.

At $90,000 BTC, an Antminer S21 Pro mining at 234 TH/s with electricity at $0.08/kWh generates roughly $28–35 per day in net profit — significantly better than pre-halving margins for many operators. The miners who used the halving as a forcing function to upgrade hardware benefited most from the subsequent price rally.

What This Means for New Miners Today

If you're considering entering Bitcoin mining after the 2024 halving, the key benchmarks have changed:

• Hardware: Only purchase machines with efficiency below 20 J/TH. The S21 Pro, Whatsminer M60S, and comparable hardware are the minimum viable tier.
• Electricity: Target rates below $0.07/kWh. Above $0.10/kWh, the margin is too thin to survive the next difficulty increase or price correction.
• Time horizon: The next halving (to 1.5625 BTC) is expected in 2028. Hardware purchased today needs to remain profitable through at least one more halving — which means buying the most efficient available hardware, not merely "good enough."

Use our Bitcoin mining profitability calculator to model your specific hardware and electricity cost against live network difficulty and price data.

Key Takeaways

• The 2024 halving cut block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, halving daily miner revenue.
• Machines below ~20 J/TH remained viable; older hardware (S9, T17 era) became permanently uneconomical.
• Network hashrate dipped briefly but recovered quickly due to new hardware deployments and geographic expansion.
• Post-halving BTC price appreciation more than compensated efficient miners for the revenue reduction.
• The 2028 halving will set the next threshold — hardware efficiency will matter even more.