Bitcoin miners face the tightest margins since 2023, warns theminermag.com’s Head of Research Wolfie Zhao, as hashprice flirts with critical break‑even territory.
Trump Tariffs Add Jitters to Miners Already Hit by Rising Difficulty, Study Finds
According to theminermag.com data compiled by Wolfie Zhao, hashprice temporarily fell below $40 per petahash per second in early April, down from the $45–$50 range logged through March. Zhao notes that the $40 line is the breakeven mark even for publicly listed giants, intensifying consolidation pressure across the sector.
The report highlights that two consecutive 1.43% difficulty increases in March and a further 6.81% jump this month have coincided with sliding fees, which now contribute less than 1.2% of block rewards. Zhao calculates that transaction‑revenue weakness compounds electricity costs, leaving median fleet hashcosts near $34 per petahash for public miners.
Source: Report published by theminermag.com.
Bitfarms and Hut 8 bucked the trend, boosting realized hashrate by about 16% and 80%, respectively, Zhao writes, while MARA remains the only miner above 40 exahash. Even so, theminermag.com research shows listed bitcoin miners liquidated 42% of March production, the highest ratio since October, as firms such as Cleanspark switched from a full “hodl” stance to asset sales.
Market sentiment mirrors operational strain. Investor anxiety has deepened amid Trump’s tariff proposals, which threaten application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) supply chains. Theminermag.com’s price‑to‑hash ratio, detailed by Zhao, has retreated toward $50 per terahash (TH/s), halving from post‑election peaks and pushing sector capitalization beneath $20 billion.
Zhao concludes that further hashrate growth by efficient operators, paired with tariff‑driven equipment uncertainty, could hasten capitulation among smaller private miners if hashprice fails to rebound.
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