Bitcoin’s 14-day moving average (14 DMA) hashrate hit a record 838.7 EH/s, while the cryptocurrency remains ~25% below its all-time high. CoinDesk senior analyst James Van Straten pointed out this concerning trend.

A new network difficulty adjustment is expected to increase the figure by over 3%, setting a new historical high. This will put additional pressure on mining economics, the expert noted.

“For miners to stay profitable and cover operating and capital expenses, a high Bitcoin price, full blocks, and high transaction fees are essential,” he emphasized.

Miners’ revenue comes from block rewards (3.125 BTC after the April 2024 halving) and network fees. However, fee volume remains extremely low—averaging around 4 BTC per day.

According to Coin Metrics, fees accounted for just 1.33% of miners’ total revenue in Q1.

“As block rewards continue halving every four years, sustained or increasing on-chain activity will be critical to maintaining mining incentives,” Van Straten stated.

Empty Train

Meanwhile, Mempool developer mononaut highlighted that Foundry USA mined the emptiest non-empty block in the past two years, containing just seven transactions—the lowest since January 2023, when a block contained only four.

Foundry just mined the emptiest non-empty block in over two years, containing only 7 transactions and weighing just 5369 units. pic.twitter.com/L4Oad11xVR
— mononaut (@mononautical) April 2, 2025

Other experts have also raised concerns.

“In other words, while a rising hashrate paints the picture of a booming network, nearly empty blocks resemble a powerful train racing down the tracks—without passengers,” Van Straten commented.

Nicholas Gregory, creator of Mercury Layer and former Nasdaq board member, also expressed concern over the trend.

Empty blocks.

At some point, I hope Bitcoiners realize this space is more than just podcasts, X Spaces, and the ‘number go up’ digital gold narrative. If we don’t get people using Bitcoin for real commerce, it’s game over. pic.twitter.com/Xg8caDz0eb
— Nicholas Gregory (@gregory_nico) March 31, 2025

“I hope Bitcoiners realize this space is about more than just podcasts, X audio rooms, and ‘perpetual growth’ driven by the digital gold narrative. If we don’t get people to use Bitcoin for real commerce, the game is over,” he concluded.

In February alone, the market capitalization of 14 publicly traded US mining companies dropped 22% due to rising network difficulty and Bitcoin’s price decline. Bernstein has since lowered target prices for several mining-related stocks for 2025.