Ether remains far behind bitcoin in terms of market value. However, it has taken the lead in terms of mining profitability. In May, ether mining turned out to be more profitable than bitcoin mining.
According to The Block data, ether miners have recorded about $77 million in daily revenue over the past few days, while bitcoin miners have posted only $67 million. Notably, this is not the first time ETH has surpassed BTC in terms of profitability. Ether miners saw higher revenues than bitcoin ones in early February and late April.
The Block experts attribute such a steep increase in ether mining profitability primarily to the altcoin’s rise in value and soaring transaction fees on the network. Thus, the cryptocurrency's recent 10% rise in price has spurred an increase in ether miners' revenue. According to CoinGecko, ETH has added 97% over the month, while its market capitalization has reached $490 billion.
The average transaction fee on the Ethereum network surged by 563% to $65 in May from $9.8 earlier this month, Bitinfocharts data showed. This is due to the growing popularity of Shiba Inu token and other jokey digital coins based on the Ethereum blockchain.
