Energy and competition: How record hash rates are changing the economics of mining

Bitcoin's network hash rate has passed 913.54 EH/s and computational complexity has reached a historic 126.98 trillion, prompting analysts to talk for the first time about approaching the "zeta hash" era. The race for computing power has already reduced revenue per PH to almost $52 and pushed the share of commissions below 1% of the block reward - for miners, this means that revenue is almost entirely dependent on net energy margins.

Against this backdrop, CleanSpark reached 50 EH/s, the first among independent operators, utilizing sites in four states. In June, the company mined 685 BTC, brought its cumulative result for the year to 3,968 BTC and added 12,608 coins to its balance sheet. With average sales of 578.51 BTC at $105,860 apiece, the firm maintained positive cash flow and used the proceeds to expand its infrastructure.

A key success factor was a set of energy-saving solutions: the average efficiency of the fleet of machines improved to 16.15 J/Th, a figure that was considered laboratory-grade a year ago. The addition of 179 MW of power to the contract raised the total resource to 987 MW and paved the way for an additional hash rate increase of more than 10 EH/s.

Public mining corporations are accelerating the modernization of ASIC fleets to keep up. MARA, Riot and Hive are increasing capacity at double-digit rates; smaller players are forced to move to warmer regions with cheap energy or switch to adjacent computing services. With equipment prices of $10-$30 per TH and meters above $0.06 per kWh, the payback period stretches to two years, and any hike in tariffs can nullify profitability.

TheMinerMag calculates that total mining costs will exceed $70,000 per BTC by the end of the quarter, although the spot price is hovering around $109,000. This spread compression makes flexible energy management more important than the speed of installing new farms. Companies are signing day-ahead contracts, testing modular substations and participating in balancing power markets, turning farms into full-fledged elements of the power grid.

Another line of defense is diversification of revenues: large operators are launching hedging programs, selling future capacity to institutional customers and receiving advances for capacity delivery. At the same time, direct capital raising is becoming more expensive - investors require a clear ESG profile and proven liquidity reserves.

The cumulative effect is also noticeable in the debt market: the growing demand of miners for short-term energy loans has started to shift corporate-CP spreads, which is noticed even by traders of traditional bonds. Financiers call what is happening "the transition from gold rush to industrial logistics" - profits are more and more often formed not in server rooms, but in network-supplier-generation contracts.

While the hash rate is headed for the next psychological mark, power engineers are recording increased demand for overnight megawatts, and manufacturers are accelerating the production of next-generation chips. This mutual spiral is driving technological innovation and promises to radically change the balance of power between generation, data centers and financial markets by winter.