Post-Halving Mining Economics Update
It's been about 10 months since the 2024 halving. Let's look at how the mining landscape has changed.
Hash rate: All-time high at 750 EH/s. Despite the block reward cut, miners are still expanding. Why? Because BTC price has more than compensated for the reward reduction.
Miner revenue per TH/s: Down about 30% from pre-halving levels in dollar terms, but up 15% if you factor in price appreciation. The efficient miners are doing fine.
Who's struggling:
- Small operations with old-gen ASICs (S19 series) are barely breaking even at current difficulty
- Power costs above $0.06/kWh are becoming unsustainable for anything less than S21-class machines
The consolidation trend:
Public miners (MARA, CLSK, RIOT) now control roughly 25% of network hash rate, up from 18% pre-halving. This centralization trend is concerning from a philosophical standpoint but makes economic sense.
My take: Mining is becoming an institutional game. The days of running a few ASICs in your garage and making meaningful income are pretty much over unless you have access to genuinely cheap power (sub $0.03/kWh).
The next squeeze will come when difficulty adjustment and price stagnation coincide. Watch the hash ribbons indicator.