Cryptocurrency Mining Market

On 30 October 2025 Core Scientific shareholders voted down the company’s sale to CoreWeave, and the merger agreement was terminated the same day, according to the Core Scientific investor release. The deal showed what the power behind cryptocurrency mining is now worth to AI buyers. Douglas Insights values cryptocurrency mining at USD 18.2 billion of miner revenue in 2025, block rewards plus transaction fees across proof-of-work coins, and forecasts USD 22.5 billion by 2035, a compound growth rate of 2.10% a year. The receipt is an average 986 exahashes per second (EH/s) of SHA-256-equivalent computing power in 2025 earning about USD 18.5 million per EH/s over the year, or USD 50.7 per petahash per second per day. Hashrate grows 9.6% a year as cheaper, more efficient machines are plugged in, while revenue per unit of hashrate falls 6.84% a year as the 2028 and 2032 halvings cut new coin issuance. The study sits within Douglas Insights coverage of blockchain and digital assets and follows the published Douglas Insights research methodology.

What counts as cryptocurrency mining revenue in this study?

Cryptocurrency mining revenue in this study is the value of new coins and transaction fees paid to miners who secure proof-of-work networks, worth USD 18.2 billion in 2025. Seven coins make up the cryptocurrency mining total: Bitcoin (SHA-256), Litecoin and Dogecoin (Scrypt merged mining), Ethereum Classic (Etchash), Kaspa (kHeavyHash), Zcash (Equihash), Bitcoin Cash (SHA-256) and Monero (RandomX). Each coin’s reward is valued at the average market price on the day it was mined.

The cryptocurrency mining study also splits revenue by operator type into listed miners, private industrial miners, hosted fleets, energy-integrated miners and home miners, and by power source into grid power, hydropower, stranded and flared gas, and curtailed wind and solar. Sales of mining machines, hosting fees paid by one miner to another, staking rewards on proof-of-stake chains and trading revenue are excluded, so the figure cannot be double counted against hardware makers. The ledgers these miners secure are covered in the Blockchain Market report, and the cooling systems that both miners and AI operators now buy sit in the Data Centre Liquid Cooling Market report.

What did the Core Scientific vote reveal about cryptocurrency mining power?

The Core Scientific vote showed that a cryptocurrency mining company’s grid connections can be worth more to an AI buyer than its bitcoin output, and Douglas Insights estimates about 14% of the megawatts held by listed US miners at the end of 2025 were already contracted or earmarked for high-performance computing. CoreWeave, an AI cloud provider, had agreed to buy Core Scientific in July 2025 to own sites it was already leasing. A miner’s energised megawatts, not its machines, are now its scarcest asset.

Douglas Insights threads the October 2025 vote through this report. It explains why cryptocurrency mining hashrate grows more slowly after 2026 than in 2025, why the largest listed miners pitch themselves as power and data centre companies among the players, and why the slower scenario assumes more megawatts leave bitcoin for AI hosting.

What drives cryptocurrency mining hashrate after the 2024 halving?

Four drivers lift cryptocurrency mining hashrate by 9.6% a year to 2035, and the bitcoin price is the first. The fourth halving on 20 April 2024 at block 840,000 cut the reward from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoin per block, yet 2025 miner revenue held up because the average price rose by about half. Riot Platforms received an average USD 101,350 for each bitcoin it mined in 2025, according to its full-year 2025 results, and MARA’s annual report shows bitcoin trading between about USD 76,000 and USD 126,000 during the year. With about 164,000 new bitcoin issued a year, each USD 10,000 on the bitcoin price moves cryptocurrency mining revenue by about USD 1.64 billion.

Machine efficiency is the second driver. The newest fleets run at 16 to 19 joules per terahash: CleanSpark reported 16.07 J/TH and 50.0 EH/s in its December 2025 update, and MARA reported 18.6 J/TH. Canaan sold 36.5 EH/s of mining machines in 2025, up 40.7%, according to its full-year results filed with the SEC. Each new generation squeezes more cryptocurrency mining hashrate from the same megawatt.

Cheap and flexible power is the third driver. The US Energy Information Administration identified 137 cryptocurrency mining facilities in 21 states, with up to 10,275 megawatts of capacity across 101 of them, and estimated they use 0.6% to 2.3% of US electricity, according to its February 2024 analysis. Miners pay about USD 35 to USD 45 per megawatt-hour, Riot reported an all-in power cost of 3.9 cents per kilowatt-hour for December 2025, and many earn grid credits by switching off at peak times. Douglas Insights estimates flexible loads of this kind add about 2.1 points a year to cryptocurrency mining hashrate growth in Texas, the Gulf and East Africa.

Transaction fees and smaller coins are the fourth driver. Fees were only about 1% of bitcoin miner revenue in 2025, but Douglas Insights expects them to reach about USD 3 billion a year by 2035 as block subsidies shrink and settlement layers built on bitcoin pay for block space. Litecoin and Dogecoin merged mining earned USD 1.18 billion in 2025, and Kaspa, the fastest-growing coin in cryptocurrency mining, grows 7.4% a year as dedicated machines for its algorithm ship in volume.

What holds back cryptocurrency mining revenue per exahash?

Three restraints pull cryptocurrency mining revenue per EH/s down 6.84% a year, and the halving schedule is the first. The 2028 halving cuts the reward to 1.5625 bitcoin and the 2032 halving to 0.78125, so bitcoin issuance falls from about 164,000 coins in 2025 to about 41,000 in 2035. Unless the bitcoin price rises about four-fold, cryptocurrency mining revenue cannot grow, and Douglas Insights sets its base case on a 2035 price near USD 420,000.

Competition for power is the second restraint. AI data centres will pay USD 1.5 million to USD 2.5 million per megawatt per year to lease a finished site, about twice the USD 1.1 million a megawatt earns in cryptocurrency mining at a hashprice of USD 50. Douglas Insights removes about 1.4 points a year from hashrate growth for megawatts that move from mining to AI hosting after the Core Scientific vote.

Energy policy is the third restraint. Norway’s government said on 20 June 2025 that it would study a temporary ban on new cryptocurrency mining data centres, and several power-short countries have limited mining at times of grid stress. Douglas Insights removes about 0.9 points a year from European and Central Asian cryptocurrency mining hashrate growth for curtailment and permitting limits.

Which coin carries the value in cryptocurrency mining?

Bitcoin (SHA-256) carries 91.25% of 2025 cryptocurrency mining value, USD 16.6 billion, while Kaspa (kHeavyHash) grows fastest at 7.4% a year.

Bitcoin (SHA-256) is worth USD 16.6 billion in 2025, about 164,000 new coins at an average near USD 100,000 plus about USD 182 million in fees. It dominates because it has the largest market value and the deepest pool of specialised machines.

Litecoin and Dogecoin (Scrypt merged mining) is worth USD 1.18 billion in 2025. Scrypt machines mine both coins at once, and Dogecoin’s fixed reward of 10,000 coins per block supplies most of the value.

Ethereum Classic (Etchash) is worth USD 124 million in 2025. Graphics card and dedicated miners moved there after Ethereum left proof-of-work in 2022, but growth is slow at 1.2% a year.

Kaspa (kHeavyHash) is worth USD 95.0 million in 2025 and grows fastest at 7.4% a year to USD 194 million, because fast block times attract payment use and new machines lift network security.

Zcash (Equihash) is worth USD 79.0 million in 2025. Miners keep 80% of each block reward, with the rest funding development, and interest in privacy coins supports its price.

Bitcoin Cash (SHA-256) is worth USD 74.0 million in 2025 and shrinks 1.8% a year, because it shares bitcoin’s machines and halving schedule but not its price growth.

Monero (RandomX) is worth USD 44.0 million in 2025. Its algorithm favours ordinary processors, so it is mined mostly by home miners, and exchange delistings in some countries limit its price.

How do operator type and power source split cryptocurrency mining?

By operator type, Douglas Insights estimates private industrial miners earn 46% of 2025 cryptocurrency mining revenue, listed miners 27%, hosted fleets 17%, energy-integrated miners 8% and home miners 2%. By power source, grid power supplies about 58% of hashrate, hydropower 22%, curtailed wind and solar 11%, and stranded and flared gas 9%. Energy-integrated miners, which sit behind the meter at gas fields and wind farms, grow fastest because they pay the lowest price for power.

Which region hosts the most cryptocurrency mining hashrate?

North America hosts the most cryptocurrency mining hashrate and earns 40.3% of 2025 miner revenue, USD 7.35 billion, growing 1.91% a year to USD 8.88 billion by 2035. The EIA assumed the United States held about 38% of global bitcoin mining, and Texas, Georgia and New York host most US sites; Canada adds hydropower sites in Quebec and Alberta.

The Middle East and Africa is the fastest-growing region for cryptocurrency mining at 6.9% a year, from USD 1.46 billion in 2025 to USD 2.84 billion in 2035. Ethiopia sells surplus hydropower to miners, and the United Arab Emirates and Oman back large sites with gas power. Asia Pacific earns USD 4.76 billion in 2025 and grows 1.1% a year to USD 5.31 billion; China still hosts a large share of hashrate despite its 2021 ban, and Kazakhstan and Bhutan add hydro and coal power. Europe earns USD 3.26 billion in 2025 and shrinks 0.6% a year to USD 3.07 billion, since Russia’s regional limits and Nordic policy weigh on growth. Latin America is the wildcard at USD 1.40 billion in 2025 and 5.3% a year: Paraguay’s Itaipu hydropower and Brazil’s wind surplus attract miners, but tariff changes can close sites quickly.

Which companies mine the most bitcoin, and how concentrated is cryptocurrency mining?

Douglas Insights estimates MARA earned about 4.8% of 2025 cryptocurrency mining revenue, and the three largest listed miners earned about 12.2%, so the field is spread across hundreds of private operators.

Advantage in cryptocurrency mining rests on power price, machine efficiency and access to capital. MARA reported 2025 revenue of USD 907.1 million and 5.3% of network block rewards in its fourth-quarter 2025 shareholder letter. Riot earned USD 576.3 million from mining out of USD 647.4 million of revenue. On the hardware side, Bitmain supplies most of the world’s machines and Canaan earned USD 529.7 million in 2025. After the Core Scientific vote, Douglas Insights expects listed miners to keep splitting their sites between bitcoin and AI tenants.

What price per petahash do cryptocurrency mining fleets earn and pay?

Cryptocurrency mining fleets earned an average hashprice of about USD 50.7 per petahash per second per day in 2025, and Douglas Insights expects about USD 25 by 2035. Hashprice peaked near USD 63 in July 2025 and fell to about USD 35 in November as the network grew and the bitcoin price eased. On the cost side, new SHA-256 machines sold for about USD 11 to USD 18 per terahash per second in 2025, so a 200 TH/s machine costs about USD 2,200 to USD 3,600. A machine at 17 J/TH uses about 0.41 megawatt-hours per petahash per day, so power at USD 40 per megawatt-hour costs about USD 16 per petahash per day. The cryptocurrency mining margin is the gap between those two figures, and it narrows at every halving until the next machine generation or a higher bitcoin price restores it.

Why do cryptocurrency miners lease power to AI data centres?

Cryptocurrency miners lease power to AI data centres because a megawatt leased to an AI tenant earns about USD 1.5 million to USD 2.5 million a year under long contracts, against about USD 1.1 million of gross revenue from cryptocurrency mining at 2025 hashprices. Mining sites already hold grid connections that AI builders wait years for. The catch is capital: AI halls need liquid cooling, redundant power and fibre that mining sheds lack, at USD 8 million to USD 12 million per megawatt. Douglas Insights therefore expects miners to convert their best-connected sites and keep cryptocurrency mining on cheap, interruptible power, where AI tenants will not go.

How large could cryptocurrency mining be in 2035 after two more halvings?

The base scenario takes cryptocurrency mining to USD 22.5 billion by 2035, inside a range of USD 9.55 billion to USD 48.5 billion. The base case combines 9.6% hashrate growth with a 6.84% annual fall in revenue per EH/s, for 2.10% a year, and needs a bitcoin price near USD 420,000 in 2035. The slower scenario assumes the bitcoin price stalls and more megawatts go to AI after the Core Scientific vote, setting the legs at 5.2% and minus 10.9% for minus 6.27% a year and USD 9.55 billion. The faster scenario assumes a bitcoin price near USD 900,000 and much higher fees, setting the legs at 13.8% and minus 3.1% for 10.27% a year and USD 48.5 billion. Each 1-point change in hashrate growth moves the 2035 cryptocurrency mining figure by about USD 2.14 billion. Published forecasts run from about 7.8% to 10.6% a year; the Douglas Insights figure sits below that range because it counts miner revenue only, excludes hardware sales and hosting fees, and applies the 2028 and 2032 halvings.

Which laws and energy rules shape cryptocurrency mining?

Three sets of laws and energy rules shape cryptocurrency mining, and US energy reporting is the first. The US Office of Management and Budget approved an emergency EIA survey of cryptocurrency mining electricity use on 26 January 2024, which the agency later discontinued, but grid operators such as Texas now register large flexible loads and can order them offline in emergencies. In Europe, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets requires crypto-asset service providers to publish the climate and environmental impacts of the consensus mechanisms behind the coins they offer, which puts proof-of-work coins under disclosure pressure. National rules vary most: Norway proposed a temporary ban on new mining data centres in June 2025, China has banned cryptocurrency mining since 2021, and Russia legalised it in 2024 while limiting it in some regions during winter. Douglas Insights estimates that about 11% of 2025 cryptocurrency mining hashrate sits in places where a single government decision could switch it off.

Douglas Exclusive: the cryptocurrency mining breakeven tracker

The breakeven tracker maps 42 mining machine models against 25 power prices and the daily hashprice, and at a hashprice of USD 35 it shows about 29% of 2025 cryptocurrency mining hashrate running below cash breakeven at USD 50 per megawatt-hour. Miners, lenders and power sellers use the tracker to see which fleets will switch off first after a price fall or a halving, and which sites are likely to be sold or converted to AI hosting. The tracker is refreshed weekly.

Methodology and receipts: how do 986 EH/s add up to USD 18.2 billion?

The cryptocurrency mining model multiplies average hashrate by revenue per unit of hashrate. The headline receipt is an average 986 EH/s of SHA-256-equivalent hashrate multiplied by USD 18.5 million per EH/s for the year, giving USD 18.2 billion for 2025. Bitcoin revenue comes from about 52,560 blocks at 3.125 bitcoin each, valued at daily prices, plus fees; the six smaller coins are counted the same way from their own block rewards and converted to SHA-256-equivalent hashrate by revenue. Production reports from 9 listed miners, EIA facility counts and machine shipments check the regional split. The forecast compounds 9.6% hashrate growth and a 6.84% annual fall in revenue per EH/s to about 2,466 EH/s at USD 9.11 million per EH/s and USD 22.5 billion in 2035.

Sources

1. Core Scientific, Inc. (investor release) Core Scientific announces termination of merger agreement with CoreWeave (2025)
2. U.S. Energy Information Administration Tracking electricity consumption from U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations (2024)
3. MARA Holdings, Inc. (SEC EDGAR filing) MARA Q4 2025 shareholder letter (2026)
4. Riot Platforms, Inc. (company release) Riot Platforms reports full year 2025 financial results (2026)
5. CleanSpark, Inc. (investor release) CleanSpark releases December 2025 bitcoin mining update (2026)
6. Canaan Inc. (SEC EDGAR filing) Canaan Inc. fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 results (Exhibit 99.1) (2026)
7. Government of Norway, Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance Utvinning av kryptovaluta (temporary ban on new crypto-mining data centres) (2025)
8. EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (2023)