Fees Percent of Block Reward

Fees Chart Explained

This chart is a historical look at what percent of the block reward is comprised of fees as opposed to block subsidy.

How to Interpret

The purpose of this chart is to get a good picture of the congestion of on-chain transactions. That’s because more transactions competing for block space mean a more competitive market for fees. This chart also gives a good sense of how important fees are for miner profitability at any given time. A higher value means fees play a larger role in miner revenue. For instance, on December 22, 2017, the fees were 78% of the total block reward. This means that the ~2,050 Bitcoins awarded through block subsidies on that day represented only 22% of the total block reward earned by miners. This means that fees on that day amounted to 7,268.04 Bitcoins - nearly 4 times the number of coins in the block subsidy.

How to Calculate Fees

It is calculated by taking the fees (btc) and dividing it by the entire block reward (block subsidy + fees)