Bitcoin miners are facing renewed financial pressure as declining transaction fees and a hashprice drop push operational costs higher, according to TheMinerMag’s February 2025 report.
Bitcoin’s hashrate climbed 3.8% in February to 810 EH/s, showing a slowdown in mining competition growth. However, the hashprice (the revenue that miners earn per unit of computing power) slipped to $45/PH/s, wiping out gains from the U.S. election-driven price surge. At this level, inefficient miners are feeling the strain.
Transaction fees made up just 1.3% of total block rewards in February, marking their lowest share since the last bear market bottom in 2022. March is trending even lower, at 1.12% so far.
These factors — alongside increased competition from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers — are putting extra pressure on mining operations who rely on hosting agreements and asset-light strategies.
MARA remains the industry leader with 44 EH/s after a 6% hashrate increase, while CleanSpark grew 12% to 39 EH/s. Meanwhile, total bitcoin holdings among miners surpassed 100,000 BTC for the first time, despite some firms like HIVE Digital and Cipher Mining selling their production to fund expansion.
Mining stocks took a hit, with the combined market capitalization of 15 major firms dropping from $36 billion in January to $22 billion in March. Cipher, Canaan, Hut 8, HIVE, and Bitdeer all saw losses exceeding 40%.
With network growth slowing and energy costs rising, miners may need a Bitcoin price rally to avoid further financial strain.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
