The companies powering bitcoin score record revenues ahead of this month’s “halving” squeeze

Partying before the storm… As crypto traders celebrated a rally last month, the businesses that keep bitcoin chugging along were quietly raking in record revenues. Bitcoin miners — the people and (increasingly) publicly traded companies that validate BTC transactions and add them to the blockchain — notched a staggering $2B in revenues in March. That was partly thanks to the skyrocketing price of bitcoin, the OG crypto, which in mid-March hit an all-time high of more than $73K. Memecoins like dogwifhat and shiba inu also surged on the crypt-thusiasm.

• At work: Mining corps including Marathon Digital, Hut 8, and Riot Platforms are rewarded with BTC when they mine a block.

• Payday: But the process is pricey, and miners sell BTC to cover costs like electricity, equipment, facilities, and staff. Higher bitcoin prices can = higher revenues for miners.

Hunkerin’ down… A shake-up’s looming on the crypto industry’s horizon. Sometime around April 20 (the date isn’t fixed, because it’s determined by code) the BTC reward that miners earn is set to be sliced in half. Welcome to the “halving,” an industry-wide pay cut that rears its head every four years. It means miners will be unleashing fewer BTC into the world for essentially the same amount of work. While it’s welcomed by crypto enthusiasts — who argue that fewer bitcoins being made each day will lead to BTC price gains (which is far from guaranteed) — the halving means miners will be competing over a smaller slice of crypto pie.