Bitcoin Mining Faces Rising Power Demand and Record Low Fees

The Bitcoin network continues to grow at an industrial scale, with resource-intensive mining rigs driving unprecedented increases in energy consumption, even as transaction flow slows to record lows. However, the network appears to be struggling as the increased hashrate and infrastructure combine with low fee revenues and infrequent mempool cleanups, making it nearly impossible for miners to make money other than through the block subsidy.

Summary

The Bitcoin mining network is turning into a power-hungry behemoth, consuming more than 33 gigawatts to keep new blocks flowing, even as transaction volume on the network has fallen to its lowest level in two years.
The GoMining Institutional report describes an ecosystem where hashrate and rig counts continue to grow, but fee revenue and overall activity remain low, creating a mismatch between network scale and miner revenue.
Observers note that this imbalance could persist for years, as operators will be dependent on a decreasing block subsidy that halves every four years until the last bitcoin is mined around 2140.

The Bitcoin (BTC) network is entering a period of sharp contrasts: its energy needs are skyrocketing, while the economic benefits for miners are under pressure due to low transaction activity. A new report from GoMining Institutional, seen by crypto.news, paints a picture of accelerating energy consumption, low mining difficulty, and an unusually quiet on-chain environment that calls into question the sustainability of the current direction .

According to the report, the estimated network energy consumption has grown at what the researchers call an “unprecedented rate.” Citing data from CoinMetrics Labs, GoMining reports that Bitcoin mining energy consumption increased from 15.6 gigawatts (GW) in January 2024 to 24.5 GW in January 2025. By the end of May 2025, it had risen again to 33.1 GW, an increase of more than 100% in just 17 months.

The bulk of this growth occurred in early 2025. “Only the jump in energy demand from January to May — an increase of 35% — reflects both the increased deployment of more energy-intensive mining infrastructure following the April halving,” the report states.

Industry analysts cited in the report argue that while individual mining rigs have become more efficient than ever, their adoption is stifling that growth. “Efficiency gains at the machine level are increasingly being offset by the sheer volume of equipment deployed,” the report notes, adding that the importance of innovation now extends beyond ASIC development to how and where miners get their electricity.

The sharpest decline since 2021

The increase in energy consumption comes amid a relatively decrease in the network's mining difficulty, an indicator of how difficult it is to verify new blocks. The difficulty metric was adjusted 13 times in the first half of 2025, and it rose from 109.78 trillion at the beginning of the year to 116.96 trillion by the end of June. This represents an increase of only 6.54% since the beginning of the year, with an average monthly increase of 1.09%.

The report attributes this slowdown to rapid growth in 2024, with difficulty increasing by an average of 4.48% per month. The relative calm in 2025 was punctuated by periods of volatility: a 6.81% increase on April 5 and a 4.38% increase on May 30 led to difficulty reaching an all-time high of 126.98 trillion. However, this peak was quickly followed by a sharp decline.

By the end of June, a heat wave in North America forced some operators to curtail their operations, causing the hash rate to drop by 147 EH/s. “Bitcoin difficulty fell by 7.48%, the steepest drop since July 2021,” the report said, drawing comparisons with the post-China mining ban era.

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While network energy consumption is increasing, transaction rates are showing the opposite. Network activity in the first half of 2025 fell to levels not seen since October 2023. The seven-day rolling average of daily transactions also fell to around 313,510 by June 25, reaching a low of 256,000 confirmed transactions on June 1.

This weakness has led to historically low fees. Throughout the year, users were able to send transactions with a minimum fee of 1 satoshi per virtual byte, regardless of priority level. “There were several instances during the first half of the year where transactions — regardless of priority level — could be sent with a minimum fee of just 1 satoshi per virtual byte, indicating continued low demand for blockchain on the network,” the report states.