Bitcoin Miners Are Operating at Losses After the Asset Dipped Below $54,000

Only five miners remain profitable after bitcoin dropped to prices below $54,000, said f2pool, a crypto mining firm.  “With #Bitcoin trading below $58k, what is the current profitability for mining? At a rate of $0.08/kWh, ASICs less efficient than 23 W/T operate at a loss,” the miner said in an X post. The same post displayed a graph showing profitable miners at this price range.

Source: f2pool on X

At asset prices below $54,000, only four of Antminer’s rigs and one of Avalon’s remain profitable, with everything else operating at losses. That will push more miners to sell their asset holdings to cover operational costs. Last month already saw Bitcoin miners liquidate over $1 billion in two weeks. The asset’s price moved from $70,000 to $65,000 over that period.

As the largest blockchain network underwent its halving mechanism this year, cutting block rewards in half and taking rewards down to 3.125 bitcoins from 6.25, many miners had to sell their holdings to cover operational expenses. The halving mechanism exists to keep bitcoin deflationary but comes at the cost of sending miners away from the network because mining profitability is reduced.

Some miners tried to push through previously but had to file for bankruptcy because the rewards were not enough to accrue profits. That issue is felt more now as block rewards are the lowest they have ever been and will only decrease every four years.

Many mining firms that can afford to do so are acquiring smaller counterparts to increase the power they can access as much as possible to mine as many blocks as they can. Doing so offers them increased rewards and will help them stay profitable. However, that is not an option for most Bitcoin miners, making it difficult to register profits in the short term.

Image by Aaron Olson from Pixabay