Bitcoin Miners Nurse Losses as BTC Struggles to Hold $50K - "The Defiant"

Bitcoin miners are struggling to turn a profit after BTC plummeted 25% in the past week and fights to hold the crucial $50,000 level. Most mining rigs are now operating at a loss, struggling with high electricity costs that surpass revenue, according to an analysis from F2Pool. The additional stress comes as Bitcoin miners are already grappling with the fallout from the recent Bitcoin halving event in April, which reduced the Bitcoin block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. As a result, miners are facing even more pressure to stay afloat. At an electricity cost of $0.07 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), the specialized mining machines known as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that consume 23 watts per terahash (W/T) or more are currently unprofitable because the electricity cost exceeds the revenue generated. Despite being designed to make Bitcoin mining more efficient, several mining rigs, including the WhatsMiner M50S, Antminer S19j Pro+, and WhatsMiner M30S++, are incurring losses due to the dip in BTC prices. When Bitcoin's price falls, the revenue generated from mining decreases, while operational costs, such as electricity, remain constant or even increase. To break even, the BTC price would need to rise to approximately $53,000 for the WhatsMiner M50S, $56,000 for the Antminer S19j Pro+, and $63,000 for the WhatsMiner M30S++. BTC is currently trading at $51,000 after dropping more than 16% in the past 24 hours. Impact on Mining Revenue In the past seven days, Bitcoin miners’ daily revenue has dropped 27% to $29 million from $40 million, according to data from Ycharts. Blockchain researcher Collin Brown believes the declining profitability could force some miners to shut down or sell their equipment. “This could, in turn, affect the hashrate and the security of the Bitcoin network, “ he said. “It remains to be seen whether the Bitcoin price will recover or whether we will see a larger exodus of miners.” Notably, a few newer models, like the Antminer S21 Hyd and Antminer S21, are still profitable. However, Bitcoin's overall mining hash price has dropped to a historic low of $36 per petahash per day (PH/day), compared to its all-time high of $3486 per PH/day in December 2017. The Bitcoin hash rate measures the computational power required to mine and process transactions on Bitcoin's network. It has a direct impact on miners' potential earnings. A higher hash rate means more competition and fewer rewards for individual miners, and vice versa.

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