Bitcoin mining costs soar to $137,800, mining companies collectively shift to AI computing power for survival

On December 7, a fresh set of data laid bare the true state of survival in the mining sector—a miner now has to burn an average of $74,600 in cash to mine a single Bitcoin. And that’s just the visible cost; factoring in equipment depreciation and stock-based compensation, the actual all-in cost has soared to $137,800.

To make matters worse, the total network hashrate just broke through the historic 1 ZH/s threshold. The higher the hashrate, the fiercer the competition, and the slimmer the profit margins for miners. Many publicly-listed mining companies have realized that instead of fighting an increasingly uphill battle in Bitcoin mining, it’s better to repurpose their mining farms and data centers for more lucrative ventures like AI computing and high-performance computing.

The industry is now splitting into two camps: one is transforming into infrastructure providers, upgrading mining farms into high-profit computing centers; the other is sticking to traditional mining, but finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat as profits are nearly depleted.