Bitcoin Mining Profitability Slumps to Five-Month Low

Hashprice dropped below $50/PH/s for the first time since April, highlighting weaker mining margins despite BTC holding above $110K.

Hashprice sinks amid rising hashrate

Bitcoin’s price remains above $110,000, yet mining profitability continues to decline. This week, hashprice — revenue per petahash per second — fell below $50/PH/s for the first time since April. Analysts warn it could dip further to $46/PH/s, a level last recorded when BTC traded near $90,000.

The seven-day average hashrate has surged past 1.1 zetahash per second, up over 10% since early September when the network first crossed 1 ZH/s. Another 6% difficulty increase is expected within days, putting additional pressure on miner margins.

Fees remain weak, hardware supply expands

Transaction fees are offering little relief. In September, they made up less than 0.9% of total rewards, extending the trend of weak fee income since the halving. Without mempool congestion or higher blockspace demand, subsidies remain the dominant revenue stream.

Meanwhile, hardware makers are scaling up. MicroBT launched a U.S.-based store with a 10,000-unit monthly assembly capacity for WhatsMiners, echoing similar moves by Bitmain, Bitdeer, and Canaan.

Diversification and legal challenges

Public miners are increasingly diversifying into high-performance computing (HPC). Cipher Mining signed a $3 billion, 10-year deal with Fluidstack for 168 MW of hosting capacity, while CleanSpark expanded its Coinbase-backed credit line by $100 million to invest in HPC infrastructure.

At the same time, the FTX Recovery Trust filed a $1.15 billion lawsuit against Genesis Digital Assets, alleging inflated projections and misuse of customer funds. The case underscores the gap between 2021’s boom — when hashprice peaked above $400/PH/s — and today’s reality, with profitability near $46/PH/s and miners under pressure to optimize every watt while diversifying revenue streams.