Mining Bitcoin is becoming more expensive. The largest mining companies, whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, spent an average of $82,162 on the production of one bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2024. This is stated in a new report by the research company CoinShares.
For comparison: A quarter earlier, the average cash cost was $55,950. Thus, costs increased by almost 47% in just three months.
The authors of the report separately distinguish between two cost indicators. The operating cash cost takes into account only the direct costs of companies (for electricity, equipment operation and administrative expenses). It is this indicator that reflects the real financial burden on miners.
Total cost also includes accounting items such as depreciation of equipment and employee benefits in shares. These expenses do not require immediate cash payments, but they affect the financial statements and the final profits of companies.
CoinShares notes that if non-monetary items such as equipment depreciation and stock rewards are taken into account, the total cost of mining one bitcoin rises to $137,018.
However, it is the operating expenses reflecting the real cash flow that provide the most accurate picture of the state of the industry. In its research, CoinShares analyzed the performance of the largest public mining companies such as Hut 8, CleanSpark, Iren, Cormint, Core Scientific and Cipher Mining. It was their financial data that formed the basis for calculating the average cost of bitcoin mining.
The impact of duties
Nevertheless, equipment depreciation costs may increase significantly in the near future due to the trade duties imposed by US President Donald Trump, CoinShares noted.:
"Miners using older or less efficient equipment are most susceptible to these fees."
On April 2, Trump announced tariffs for dozens of countries. Minimum duties of 10% for all partners have been in effect since April 5. From April 9, it was planned to introduce additional duties, set separately for each country.
The increase in duties also affected the countries from which mining equipment comes to the United States, including China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The introduction of duties coincided with the historical maximum in terms of the total bitcoin hashrate, reached on April 11 at 924 Eh/s (hashes per second), according to the service. Blockchain.com. As of April 26, the indicator dropped 12% to 815 Eh/s, which offset the entire growth of the hashrate in 2025, which grew from about 790 Eh/s from January to its peak in April.
Mining is a complex computational process for verifying the authenticity of bitcoin transactions. The mining process consists of confirming blocks with transactions and receiving a reward in the form of new bitcoins. Those who participate in this process are called miners. They compete with each other in solving complex tasks of calculating so-called hashes.
In the context of mining, there is also the concept of a network hashrate. This term is used to measure the power of the equipment that is involved in the mining process. The growth of the hashrate suggests that the total capacity of the equipment in the network is growing, and as a result, the complexity of mining is also increasing. If the hashrate decreases, then vice versa.
To measure the hashrate, an indicator is used that determines the number of operations (hashes) per second that mining equipment (H/s) can perform. Because of the huge hashrate values, prefixes like terahesh (TH/s) began to be used. The current hashrate and complexity values can be found on services such as btc.com.
Forecasts for the Bitcoin market
Despite all the macroeconomic conditions associated with the imposition of duties in the United States, CoinShares believes that the long-term prospects of the mining market will not be affected in any way.
"Our latest forecasts now indicate that the long-awaited threshold of 1,000 Eh/s may be reached as early as July this year. At the same time, computing power is expected to grow to 1,280 Eh/s by the end of the year and reach 2,000 Eh/s by early 2027," analysts suggest.
In addition, experts note the trend towards diversifying the mining business towards creating infrastructure for data centers that offer more predictable revenue streams. Another important trend is also the possible weakening of the dollar, which will lead to an increase in the price of bitcoin, which will also affect the income of mining companies in the direction of growth.
"The imposition of duties is likely to spur inflation in both the United States and its trading partners. This dynamic may force the adoption of more adaptive fiscal and monetary policies, measures that often lead to currency depreciation, ultimately increasing the attractiveness of bitcoin as an asset independent of states and resistant to inflation," CoinShares writes.
CoinShares is not the only one who considers the weakness of the dollar and monetary policy in the United States as possible influencing factors for the rise in bitcoin prices. Analysts at Binance, the largest crypto exchange, also note the weak impact of the imposed duties in the United States compared to their monetary policy, which is precisely due to which the conjuncture in global trading markets is being formed.
Some experts believe that the deterioration of the situation in the mining market can only affect participants from the United States, who occupy about 30% of the mining market. However, a decrease in the share of American miners in the global market may lead to a more global distribution of computing power, which will benefit other regions.
