Bitcoin Mining 2024 Review – Trends, Insights and the Road Ahead

The Bitcoin mining industry experienced a landmark year in 2024, marked by historic achievements and significant milestones that reshaped the landscape for miners worldwide. In our Bitcoin Mining 2024 Review we provide an in-depth analysis of the sector’s key developments, covering the state of the Bitcoin network, mining economics, ASIC hardware markets, and the performance of publicly traded mining companies.

This comprehensive report is authored by Nico Smid of Digital Mining Solutions and Cindy Feng of BitcoinMiningStock.io. Brought to you by our Sponsor NiceHash.

1. State of the network

Blocks in 2024

The Bitcoin network started 2024 at block 823,807 and ended the year at block 877,270. This totals a production of 53,463 blocks with an average block time of 9 min 83 secs. This is 512 blocks less than were produced in 2023 (total 53,975).

On April 19th 2024, at block height 840,000, the 4th out of a total of 32 halvings occurred. Bitcoin’s supply issuance dropped from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 per block, reducing daily production from 900 to 450 coins a day. At the 4th halving, 93.75% of all Bitcoin was mined and in this cycle 3.125% of the 21 million BTC will be mined. The network is currently in Epoch V. The last Bitcoin is estimated to be mined around the year 2140. This event is known as “Bitcoin’s total supply cap.” At that stage, miner revenue will rely solely on transaction fees. The total supply at January 1st was 19.8 million or 94.3% of the 21 million BTC.

Record Breaking Hashrate Growth

Despite 2024 being a challenging year for miners, with the Halving putting significant pressure on margins, the growth in hashrate deployment has been remarkable. This surge was driven by new facility build-outs and miners upgrading their fleet to the latest-generation machines.

Last year, network hashrate has increased by 292 EH/s, surpassing the 250 EH/s added in 2023. 2024 goes down as a record-breaking year in terms of hashrate growth. Note: Despite a record amount of hashrate being added, the percentage growth is lower than in the previous year. As the network grows larger, each additional EH/s has a smaller impact on overall mining difficulty.

Wondering what happened in the first 100 blocks after the halving? Curious about the halving’s impact and the hashrate volatility throughout 2024? Dive into the full analysis—download the complete report now!

Geographical Hashrate Trends

The United States remains the undisputed leader in Bitcoin mining, but the global mining landscape is far from static. Emerging regions like Africa and, South America are increasingly leveraging underutilized and stranded energy resources.

AI/HPC Competes with Miners in the US

For U.S.-based miners, especially those reliant on on-grid power, the harsh mining economics and lucrative AI/HPC business tempted them to diversify into other compute. In 2024, several public Bitcoin mining companies, allocated significant portions of their power capacity to AI/HPC workloads. Despite this intensifying competition, Bitcoin’s network hashrate in the U.S. has continued to grow across multiple states.

Ethiopia Technological Leader in Africa

Ethiopia is quickly emerging as a major player in Bitcoin mining, contributing and estimated 2.5% of the global hashrate. With operations consuming 600 MW of power, and expected to reach 1 gigawatt within a year.

Russia’s Strategic Push and Regional Restrictions

In 2024 BitRiver, the nation’s largest data centre operator, has partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to build mining and AI computing facilities across BRICS nations.  Domestically, Russia has taken decisive steps to regulate mining. Crypto mining will be banned entirely in 10 Russian regions for six years.

Regulatory Uncertainty in Paraguay Drives Miners to Argentina and Brazil

Paraguay, the hotspot for Bitcoin miners in South America due to its low electricity costs, now faces increasing regulatory uncertainty that is pushing miners to explore neighbouring countries like Argentina and Brazil. In 2024, Paraguay implemented several measures to regulate mining, focusing illegal activities and enhancing energy management.

Nordics Reuse Heat to Stay Competitive

Bitcoin mining in Europe faces significant challenges due to high energy costs and stringent regulations, making conventional mining models increasingly untenable. In 2024, innovative solutions like heat recycling have emerged as the most feasible way to mine Bitcoin while aligning with regulatory and environmental priorities.

2. Mining Economics

All-Time high, $100K and $2T Market Cap

Price-wise, 2024 has been an exceptional year for Bitcoin. On January 1st, 2024, BTC opened at $42,200 and ended the year at $93,400. This marks a 121.3% year-over-year increase. 2024 was a remarkable year for Bitcoin, breaking several noteworthy records. For the first time in its history, Bitcoin reached an all-time high before the halving. With the momentum of the Trump pump, Bitcoin hit another significant milestone: $100.000. The $100K Bitcoin was also unique because it meant Bitcoin surpassed a $2 trillion market cap.

Bitcoin Breaking ETF Records

One of the main drivers for the price increase since January has been the influx of ETF investments. The first trading week of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was exceptionally active, with over $4.6 billion in trading volume on the first day alone. On December 17th spot Bitcoin ETFs alone held $123.34 billion, just shy of the $125 billion in spot gold ETFs.

Institutional Buying, The MicroStrategy Playbook

In 2024, several companies adopted the MicroStrategy playbook using Bitcoin as a primary treasury reserve asset. This involves reallocating excess cash and raising capital through debt or equity to purchase Bitcoin. BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust ($IBIT) is the biggest holder of Bitcoin, followed by MicroStrategy, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust and Tether. The publicly traded miners combined are the 6th largest holders of BTC. MARA is the biggest holder amongst the Bitcoin miners with a total of 44,394 BTC on their balance sheet.

Record Nominal Annual Difficulty Increase

The year began with a network difficulty of 72.01 T and ended at 109.78T, marking a 52.5% increase. While the nominal increase in difficulty was slightly higher than in 2023, the percentage increase in 2024 was less than half of that in the previous year.

Hashprice

Until the halving, hashprice fluctuated between $75 and $120/PH/day. Around the halving event, transaction fees spiked, driving hashprice to $179/PH/day—the highest level in 2024 and a price not seen in two years. Unsurprisingly, the halving of the block subsidy had a significant impact on hashprice, causing it to plummet to a historic low of $38/PH/day. Hashprice started the year at $91/PH/day and ended 2024 at $55/PH/day, a 39.6% decline, but up 44.7% from the record low.

Transaction Fees > Block Subsidy

At the start of 2024, transaction fees remained elevated following the 2023 Ordinal inscriptions boom. The surge in interest for creating and trading these digital assets and tokens led to substantial demand and increased competition for block space. While this peaked in December 2023, it continued to result in relatively high transaction fees during Q1 2024.

ViaBTC mined the halving block at 840,000 with a remarkable 37.626 BTC in transaction fees, resulting in over 40 BTC in total block rewards. The last surge in transaction fees in 2024 was driven by users rushing to lock their BTC into a staking protocol called Babylon.

Dive deep into Bitcoin’s price, difficulty, hashprice, and hashrate dynamics. Explore the detailed mining economics chapter in our comprehensive 2024 review. Download the full report for free now!

3. ASIC Hardware Market

Price Dynamics

Unlike the previous four years, which saw significant price surges and declines, the ASIC market in 2024 was relatively uneventful. Prices across all tiers continued to decline steadily until Q4, when bullish Bitcoin price action appeared to establish a market bottom.

25–38 joules/TH Hardware Tier Experienced 97.5% Price Drop

The 25–38 joules/TH machines experienced the sharpest decline in value, as many models were barely breaking even after the halving, especially for miners relying on hosting services. At the beginning of the year, these machines were priced slightly above $10/TH, but at their lowest point, they fell below $3/TH. For context, the same machines were selling for nearly $120/TH during the 2021 bull run.

Premium on Efficient Machines

the 25–38 J/TH generation experienced a significant price drop post halving, further widening the premium gap between the mid-gen machines and the more efficient tiers. Such a steep discount on the 25–38 J/TH machines can be interesting for miners looking for a fast ROI, as the lower upfront cost may offset their reduced efficiency, particularly for those with cheap electricity.

Hardware Trends

In 2024 the first ASIC miner with an efficiency below 20 J/TH entered the market. ASIC miners have drastically reduced their power consumption per terahash. However, it’s worth noting that the rate of efficiency gains has slowed in recent years.

As the Bitcoin mining industry has evolved, miners have adopted more sophisticated strategies to optimize operations. Depending on market conditions, they prioritize either maximum hashrate output or improved energy efficiency. While stock firmware often imposes limitations, customized firmware has enabled miners to overclock and underclock their machines. In response, ASIC hardware manufacturers have introduced miners with built-in power configuration options, such as Normal Efficiency Mode (NEM) and High Efficiency Mode (HEM).

In 2024, several Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturers, including Bitmain, MicroBT and Bitdeer, introduced ASIC models in the U2 and U3 form factors. These models reflect the growing trend toward industrial-scale mining in professionally managed facilities.

The trend of mini Bitcoin miners has gained traction in last year as manufacturers seek to cater to home miners while promoting the ethos of a decentralized network. These compact miners offer lower entry costs, reduced power consumption, and the ability to mine Bitcoin in environments with space constraints, such as homes or offices. 

Our 2024 review report features an in-depth section on all the new ASIC miners released this year, complete with a detailed overview of each model’s specifications. Don’t miss out—download the full report for FREE!

4. Public Mining Companies

Initial Public Offerings

In 2024 GRIID Infrastructure and Bitfufu saw a successful IPO in Q1. Core Scientific returned to Nasdaq under the ticker CORZ after restructuring from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Vancouver-based Cathedra Bitcoin resumed trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker “CBIT” after a successful merger with Kungsleden. Swan Bitcoin unveiled its mining operations and plans for a public listing within 12 months. However, by July, the company ceased its mining activities and shelved IPO plans due to the absence of a significant financing partner.

Mergers & Acquisitions

In 2024, we saw numerous M&A deals from publicly listed miners, particularly the larger ones accelerating their expansion plans by acquiring operational facilities. 11 out of the largest 15 U.S.-listed miners (by market cap) were involved in M&A deals during the year. While most of the reported M&A deals focused on Bitcoin mining data centers, there were also acquisitions in HPC data centers and other sectors, which reflects different business strategies. In the report we go over all the M&A activities of the public mining companies providing details about the costs, assets required and the impact these deals have on the business.

Hashrate Growth & Fleet Upgrades

Public Bitcoin mining companies have aggressively expanded in 2024 by upgrading ASIC fleets, increasing data center capacity, and pursuing strategic acquisitions.

Iris Energy, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms led in year-over-year hashrate growth, recording increases of 400%, 234.33%, and 148.39% respectively. Meanwhile, companies like MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, and Iris Energy met or exceeded their ambitious expansion targets of 50EH/s, 37 EH/s and 31 EH/s , respectively.

When analyzing ASIC purchase records from the top 15 U.S.-listed public Bitcoin miners. The majority of companies still favored Bitmain’s models, especially the newer and more efficient Antminer S21 Series. However, there is some diversification in procurement strategies, with Riot placing orders from MicroBT, Cipher Mining allocating approximately 15% of its hash rate to Canaan, and Bitdeer leveraging its own in-house developed SEALMINER.

Overall, public miners have been proactive in upgrading their fleets, prioritizing greater efficiency and increased capacity.

AI/HPC

With AI emerging as one of the most prominent topics in technology and investment circles, it’s no surprise that Bitcoin miners are embracing this trend to diversify their revenue streams, particularly as they navigate challenges of the post-halving era.

While many public Bitcoin miners announced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High Performance Computing (HPC) initiatives in 2024, only a handful reported revenue from these ventures as of Q3 2024. We analized the publicly listed companies with market capitalizations exceeding $100 million in detail in the report.

Miner Revenue

Bitcoin mining production declined in 2024 compared to the previous year, primarily due to the Bitcoin halving event. However, an improved Bitcoin price helped partially offset the impact of reduced output. All of the 15 largest miners by market cap experienced revenue growth during the first nine months of the year. In general, the companies with the highest revenue growth were those that significantly expanded their hashrate. However, there were notable exceptions, such as Riot, Bitfarms, and Bit Digital.

Gross Margin wise, it paints a mix of improvements and challenges for companies included in the report. Several miners demonstrated significant improvements in gross margins, signalling operational efficiencies and better cost management.

Overall, while some miners have successfully leveraged operational efficiencies and market opportunities to achieve robust margin growth, others continue to grapple with cost pressures and operational challenges. This serves as a clear reminder of the importance of strategic investing and cost management to remain competitive.

Stock Performance

Publicly listed Bitcoin miners, often viewed as a proxy for Bitcoin, experienced mixed outcomes. While some successfully capitalized on favourable market conditions, others struggled with operational challenges and declining stock prices. While multiple miners performed exceptionally well, in the report the analysis focuses on companies that adopted notable strategies, which intended to provide inspiration for the broader mining sector.

Miner Stocks vs BTC

In the review we analyze the mining stock performance by drawing the charts of the Bitcoin Mining Stock Index from BitcoinMiningStock.io. This index tracks publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies listed in the United States (excluding OTC markets), capturing roughly 82% of the global Bitcoin mining stock market capitalization. Companies within the index are weighted by size, meaning larger players have a greater influence. The index updates daily, excluding weekends and other non-trading days.

During the first half of 2024, the index underperformed Bitcoin—likely due to market uncertainties surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin halving. However, as mining operations expand and hash rates increase, confidence in these stocks appears to be steadily recovering.

Discover how investor sentiment evolved throughout the year, which mining stocks outperformed, and why some miners emerged as top gainers or underperformers in 2024. Download the full report now!

5. Future Outlook

2024 has been a record breaking years in many aspects. Historical patterns suggest that the year following a halving often bring unique opportunities for miners. In the report we analyse potential scenarios and explores some key projections for Bitcoin mining in 2025, which include:

  • Network Hashrate Surpasses 1 Zetahash.
  • BTC Needs to Exceed $200K for Hashprice to Return to Pre-Halving Levels.
  • Price Outpacing Difficulty Adjustments.
  • Launch of First 1 PH/s ASIC Miner.
  • First ASICs to Reach Single Digit Efficiency.
  • The S19 Will Make a S9-Style Comeback.
  • Wider Adoption Bitcoin Treasury Strategy.
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