Weekly Update: BTC Miners Face ‘Alarming Situation’ as Earnings Stall at Near-Record Lows

Hashprice, a key metric used to gauge miner revenue, is currently hovering near a five-year low, according to HashRate Index—a stark reminder of how difficult the mining business has become. In simple terms, the metric represents the income miners can expect per unit of computing power, denoted by per petahash (PH/s). It can be expressed in U.S. dollars or BTC, although it’s most commonly quoted in USD for practical comparison. At present, hashprice sits at $44.00 PH/s, only slightly above its August 2024 low, when bitcoin reached $49,000 amid the yen carry trade unwind. Currently, bitcoin is trading around $84,000.

Mining hashprice (Luxor) Despite the higher BTC price, miner revenue is dwindling, which paints a dire picture of the mining industry as a whole after the recent halving event cut the rewards by half. Rising competition, higher mining difficulty, lower transaction revenue, and spiking energy costs have added more pressure to the revenue.

However, it’s not all bad. At around $44.00 PH/s levels, depending on the types of mining machines miners are using, they can still be near or at breakeven, although this is a far cry from the peaks experienced during the 2021 mining bull run. Looking ahead, deteriorating market conditions, stagnant bitcoin prices, and geopolitical uncertainty, such as potential tariffs affecting mining operations, could create further challenges for the industry.

This is illustrated in the performance of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI), which is down 50% year-to-date while BTC has fallen about 10%, underscoring the difficult environment facing the mining sector. It’s becoming increasingly evident that miners are pivoting towards alternative revenue streams, such as reallocating computing power for artificial intelligence.