The most efficient bitcoin mining machines are selling for 77% less than last year.
Mining machines on sale
The best machines currently cost $24 for 100 TH/s according to the Luxor company. An S19 Pro antminer that delivers 110 TH/s can therefore be traded around $2600.
These same machines cost over $100 for 100 TH/s last year…
CleanSpark has even just offered 3,843 Antminers S19 Pro for $5.9 million. That’s $15.50 for 100 TH/s! These machines were sold off by the miner Argo who could soon join Core Scientific in the turmoil.
Here are the latest current prices for Whatsminers:
Great business. »
The COO of Luxor, a firm specializing in the sale of miningreveals that there are only about thirty buyers in the entire northern hemisphere. “Almost everyone sells”does he have declared at the Wall Street Journal.
The situation has changed dramatically now that the gross margin of an Antminer S19 Pro is only 38%, compared to 88% last year (assuming a price of six cents per kilowatt).
It is absolutely crucial for a miner to plan for the worst so that they are not taken by the throat, whether on a small or large scale.
At time t, the best estimate of this margin is called the “hashprice” . This metric represents a miner’s income for each TH/s they contribute to the Bitcoin network. It is expressed in dollars per day.
The hashprice, the miner’s compass
Several parameters are taken into account to calculate the hashprice. The most important is undoubtedly the price of bitcoin which is difficult to anticipate. Its volatility, as extreme as it is unpredictable, has rolled over more than one miner.
The cost of electricity is another key factor over which the miner has more control. By the way, the hashprices that you will find here and there often assume that the kilowatt costs six cents.
A good strategy should therefore be to settle near inexpensive sources of electricity. That is to say where there is surplus juice of renewable origin. Or on the methane flares, an energy which moreover can be obtained for free!
Another relatively important parameter is the hash rate. It is a value derived from the rate at which miners manage to validate blocks of transactions. It allows you to know how many miners share the cake of the 900 BTC mined each day.
Difficult to predict exactly what hashes misses unless you know the quantities produced by manufacturers like Bitmain…
We know, however, that the difficulty of mining changes about 24 times a year and that the average increase in difficulty over the past five years has been 6% per month. That is 100% per year.
In other words, every year there are twice as many minors to share the same cake. A cake that is moreover halved every four years. The famous halving.
The miner must also take into account the declining yields of his machines and their depreciation. Especially when more efficient models come on the market.
All this to say that it is a mistake to overflow with optimism in the mining of bitcoin. You have to always plan for the worst.
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