The Bitcoin mining industry had its most lucrative month ever in March, pocketing over $2 billion for securing the leading crypto network.

Data from Blockchain.com shows that miners, in aggregate, averaged $65.23 million per day over the 30 days ending March 31.

Miners In Massive Profit

The latest figure shatters the 30-day averages of the previous two months, which were just $48.31 million as of February 29, and $43.29 million as of January 31.

Miner revenues are almost entirely dependent on Bitcoin’s market price, since the number of newly mined coins remains mostly the same at any given time, irrespective of demand. Throughout March, Bitcoin consistently traded above $60,000 USD, topping an all-time high of over $73,000 on March 13.

The vast majority of miner rewards – $1.93 billion – came from Bitcoin’s “block subsidy”, which is the fixed reward of 6.25 BTC attached to each Bitcoin block. Another $85 million was generated through transaction fees, which can fluctuate wildly month over month based on network demand.

The block subsidy will be permanently cut in half later this month in a one-in-four-year event known as the “halving.” Naturally, this will immediately slash miner revenues, presenting an existential threat to firms that can’t run their mining equipment efficiently.

Can Miners Survive The Halving?

Analysts believe most large, publicly traded miners should remain intact, however – especially thanks to Bitcoin’s price appreciation this year. The asset is known to experience further gains several months after each halving, due to what some theorize creates a supply shock for the asset.

Preparations among large miners to survive the halving are already underway. Last month, several miners were quick to take profits on their coins at elevated prices, bringing their reserves to April 2021 lows. In an investor update on Monday, B.C. miner IREN revealed that it holds $300 million in cash on its balance sheet.

Despite positive projections, most mining firms have traded substantially lower since the start of the year after Bitcoin spot ETFs went live. IREN, for example, is still down 15.5%, and Riot Platforms is down 31%, even though Bitcoin (BTC) itself has soared 49%.

One of the sole exceptions to the rule is CleanSpark (CLSK) – up 54% year to date – after acquiring cheap mining machines during the depths of the Bitcoin bear market more than one year ago.