Bitcoin has started the day with little change. At press time, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at $8,643.06 (-0.4%).
Chart of the USD/BTC trading pair from EXANTE
For its part, Ethereum has grown to $166.95 (+0.66%), while XRP has climbed by 1.2% and is now trading at $0.235.
According to CoinMarketCap’s ranking, 7 currencies on the top 10 are in green.
Bitcoin miners brought in about $5B in 2019, The Block reports. As a comparison, the previous year this figure rose to $5.26B, while in 2017 it stayed at $3.19B.
Last year, Bitcoin miners earned a total of $4.89B in rewards for mining blocks - 12.5 Bitcoins for each block mined. The remaining $146M came from transaction processing fees.
It must be noted that The Block's analysts based their calculations on the Bitcoins that were sold immediately after they were mined, meaning they did not take into consideration the profits of those miners who sell their Bitcoins later or just keep them.
The next Bitcoin halving, which will take place in May, will reduce the reward per block mined from the current 12.5 Bitcoins to 6.25. If the price of the cryptocurrency does not rise, this will probably lead to a significant drop in miners' income.
FxPro's team of analysts say:
"Bitcoin price has registered little change over the last 24 hours coinciding with a fall in trading volumes. Market participants have decided to calm down while they wait for new catalysts. However, the fact that the crypto is not posting higher losses could be considered as good news for the market in general.
While Bitcoin price remains almost unchanged, altcoins are posting slight gains, which has made the Bitcoin dominance index fall to 65.9%. The Bitcoin fear and greed index is at a 'neutral' level of 49. It must be noted two red candles have already appeared on the daily Bitcoin chart, which means that the appearance of a third one could indicate a trend reversal."
As for the market cap of all currencies listed in CoinMarketCap, it stays at $238,514,550,665.
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