Hashprice below $40? Mining report paints grim picture for Bitcoin miners

Bitcoin miners face the tightest margins since 2023, warns Wolfie Zhao, head of research at theminermag.com, as hash prices hover in a key breakeven zone.

Research finds Trump tariffs making miners nervous while difficulty increases

Hash prices briefly fell below $40 per hash per second in early April, down from the $45-50 range recorded in March, according to data compiled by Wolfie Zhao. Zhao noted that the $40 mark is a breakeven line even for listed giants, which has heightened consolidation pressures across the industry.

The report highlights that two consecutive 1.43% difficulty increases in March, and a further 6.81% jump this month, have coincided with falling fees, which now contribute less than 1.2% of block rewards. Weak transaction revenue has exacerbated electricity costs, Zhao calculated, bringing the median queue hash cost for listed miners to nearly $34 per hash.

Bitfarms and Hut 8 bucked the trend, increasing achieved hashrate by about 16% and 80%, respectively, Zhao wrote, while MARA remains the only miner to surpass 40 exahashes. Even so, research from theminermag.com shows that publicly traded bitcoin miners liquidated 42% of their output in March, the highest percentage since October, as companies such as Cleanspark shifted from outright holdings to asset sales.

Market sentiment reflects operational pressures. Investor anxiety deepened as Trump’s tariff proposals threaten the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) supply chain. Theminermag.com’s price-to-hash ratio, Zhao detailed, has retreated to $50 per terahash, the lowest level since the post-halving peak and pushing the industry’s market value below $20 billion.

If hashrates fail to rebound, further hashrate growth by efficient operators, coupled with tariff-driven equipment uncertainty, could push smaller private miners to capitulate sooner, Zhao concluded.