Key Takeaways
How are Bitcoin mining stocks performing compared to Bitcoin itself?
Bitcoin mining stocks have outperformed Bitcoin in September, with the likes of CIFR, WULF, IREN, BITF, and HIVE rising as BTC fell by 3%.
What economic pressures are Bitcoin miners currently facing?
Tighter margins due to a hashprice below $55 per PH/s, transaction fees accounting for less than 0.8% of block rewards, and longer hardware payback periods.
While Bitcoin [BTC] continues to wrestle with its all-time high of $124,500, segments of the crypto ecosystem are showing impressive resilience.
Bitcoin mining stocks, in particular, have extended their September recovery. They have outperformed the flagship cryptocurrency, even as industry economics face mounting pressures and hardware payback periods lengthen.
Bitcoin mining stocks surge
According to The Miner Mag, mining stocks surged sharply, with Cipher climbing by 124%, Terawulf rising by 95%, and IREN up by 86% – All reaching their yearly or record highs. In fact, by doing so, they even outperformed Bitcoin as it slipped by 3.2%.
The aforementioned surge came despite looming challenges, including a projected 4.1% rise in the network’s next mining difficulty adjustment – Marking the first epoch with an average hashrate surpassing the zetahash milestone.
This also coincided with Bitcoin’s network officially entering the zetahash era, with the 14-day moving average hashrate surpassing 1 ZH/s for the first time in history – A milestone over 15 years in the making.
Concerns still in the air
However, outside of the headlines, miner economics are showing signs of strain as the competitive landscape evolves rapidly. In fact, the network’s difficulty is projected to climb by another 4.1% to nearly 140 trillion – Solidifying the zetahash epoch.
At the same time, the hashprice slipped below $55 per PH/s while transaction fees now account for less than 0.8% of block rewards, signaling tighter margins for miners.
And yet, smaller operators have emerged as the main growth drivers.
Bitdeer expanded its capacity by 40%, HIVE by 28%, and Cipher by 18%. All while major mining players have largely held back on new deployments.
This slowdown in orders has shifted the arms race.
For instance, hardware manufacturers like Bitdeer and Bitmain are increasingly taking on inventory themselves. They are effectively becoming both suppliers and operators in a rapidly evolving market.
Bitcoin hashrate and miner revenue analysis
According to the Hashrate Index’s weekly report for 9–15 September, Bitcoin has maintained a stable hashrate and difficulty, with transaction fees dipping and hashprice seeing a modest increase.
Miners collected approximately 3,344 BTC in block rewards over the week, totaling roughly $382 million, with fees contributing 29 BTC (~$3.3 million) to the overall revenue.
On the other hand, a closer look at Coinglass’s Bitcoin Daily Miner Revenue chart provided a clear view of miner earnings over time.
Source: CoinGlass
The chart illustrated the impact of April 2024’s Bitcoin halving. It halved block rewards and caused a significant drop in miner revenue measured in BTC.
Before the halving, BTC-denominated miner revenue was relatively high, while post-halving it fell sharply.
However, the dollar-denominated revenue did not decline as drastically. Especially since rising Bitcoin prices offset the reduced number of coins earned.
This relationship demonstrates that even when miners receive fewer BTC per block, increasing Bitcoin prices can help sustain profitability. This is also evidence of the interplay between price movements and miner earnings.
What’s more?
What this means is that amid historic milestones and rising miner activity, Bitcoin’s ecosystem is showing resilience.
Finally, while miner flows to exchanges like Binance have also raised short-term selling concerns, many operators are holding or transacting OTC, helping stabilize the market.
Therefore, combined with strong network fundamentals and rising scarcity metrics, these trends suggest that Bitcoin mining and broader market dynamics remain robust. Even as the zetahash era unfolds.
