According to a February 2025 report by TheMinerMag, Bitcoin miners are once again under financial pressure as declining transaction fees and falling hashrate prices lead to increased operating costs.

Bitcoin’s hashrate increased by 3.8% in February to 810 EH/s, indicating that competition in mining is slowing. However, hashrate revenue (the amount miners earn per unit of computing power) has fallen to $45/PH/s, offsetting the gains from the U.S. election-driven price increases. At this level, inefficient miners are struggling.

In February, transaction fees accounted for only 1.3% of total block rewards, the lowest since the last bear market low in 2022. March has seen an even lower trend of 1.12%.

These circumstances—coupled with increased competition from artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data centers—are putting additional pressure on mining companies that rely on hosting agreements and asset-light strategies.

MARA continues to lead the industry with 44 EH/s after a 6% increase in hashrate, while CleanSpark grew 12% to 39 EH/s. At the same time, total Bitcoin holdings among miners exceeded 100,000 BTC for the first time, despite some companies like HIVE Digital and Cipher Mining selling their products to fund expansion.

Mining stocks took a hit, with the combined market cap of 15 major players falling from $36 billion in January to $22 billion in March. Cipher, Canaan, Hut 8, HIVE, and Bitdeer all suffered losses exceeding 40%.

With network growth slowing and electricity costs rising, miners may need to raise the price of Bitcoin to avoid further financial pressure.

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Source: cryptonews.net