After the halving, 45 types of Bitcoin mining equipment are no longer profitable

Source: Caiyun Blockchain, Author: iris5625

On May 11, the Bitcoin network experienced its third block reward halving, which cut the reward from 12.5 Bitcoins to 6.25 Bitcoins. A week later, data from Bitcoin mining profit website Asicminervalue.com shows that at today’s Bitcoin exchange rate, more than 45 older Bitcoin mining devices are currently unprofitable and facing elimination.

Recent research and analysis by 8btc and F2pool shows that about 45 older Bitcoin mining equipment have been shut down overnight since the Bitcoin mining reward was halved. Statistics from the web portal Asicminervalue.com also show that the electricity price of these 45 mining machines is 0.36 RMB or 0.05 USD per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

In this article, we utilized data from Asicminervalue.com and mining equipment reports from F2Pool and 8btc. Using Asicminervalue.com, we estimated the profitability of these machines at today’s exchange rate and two different electricity costs ($0.02 and $0.05 per kWh).

Among the entire "unprofitable" mining equipment, the most advanced mining equipment is Bitmain's Antminer S11 (20.5 TH/s), which still loses 6 cents per day at an electricity price of 0.36 yuan/kWh. Other machines that cannot make a profit at this rate include Bitfury Tardis, Antminer S9 SE, GMO Miner B2, Innosilicon T2 Turbo, Bitfily Snow Panther B1, Avalon Miner 921 and the popular Antminer S9. Data shows that Bitfury's B8 seriously lost more than 18 yuan per day at 49 TH/s at an electricity price of 0.36 yuan/kWh in 2017.

Blockchain.com statistics show that on May 15, 2020, the total computing power of the entire Bitcoin network was about 100 exahash per second (EH/s).

According to Babbitt’s report, “even if the electricity cost is 0.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour, the electricity cost of S9 is still as high as 140%.” At the same time, F2pool pointed out:

Now, the Antminer S9 can only be turned on normally when the price of Bitcoin rises to $15,000. In the past, even if mining accidents occurred and the price of mining machines fell, there were still people who bought S9. Most of the recipients were owners of large mining farms. When the price of Bitcoin recovered, they could mine it themselves or sell it to others to earn the difference.

The above picture shows the old mining equipment that is not profitable at today's coin price and 0.36 yuan/kWh. Statistics from Asicminervalue.com show that there are 45 machines that fall into the non-profit category, and the current price of Bitcoin is $9,700. The once classic Antminer S9 series has become difficult after the halving.

On May 11, the total Bitcoin network hash rate was 121 exahash per second (EH/s), and by May 15, 2020, the overall hash rate was about 110 EH/s. However, statistics from Fork.io at 12-hour intervals indicate that Bitcoin's total network hash rate may even continue to decline, with the latest data showing that it has dropped to around 95 EH. These statistics suggest that many mining farms that utilize older generation mining equipment may have closed.

In regions such as Central Asia and Iran, some miners can get free electricity or only pay 0.15 yuan per kWh. Therefore, Asicminervalue.com changed the electricity price to 0.15 yuan/kWh, indicating that only eight mining machines are unprofitable at this electricity price. The mining equipment that cannot be profitable at such a low price includes Shenma M3X, Avalon 741, Shenma M3, Ant S7-LN, Ant S3, Ant V9, Ant S7 and Ant S5. Based on the current Bitcoin price, these eight machines lose between 0.7 yuan and 1.6 yuan per day respectively.

The value of the most classic Antminer S9 on the trading market also fell almost overnight. Caiyun Bit Mall, one of the earliest Bitcoin mining machine malls in China, has also removed this mining machine after the halving, while the older generation Antminer S9 is sold for 100 RMB (about 14 US dollars). A few years ago, the S9 with a speed of 13 TH per second or higher accounted for more than 70% of the total network computing power (hash rate). According to Babbitt's report, about 7 days before the halving event, a mine owner in Sichuan Province had sold 8,000 s9 mining machines and 6 transformers. Buyers are unwilling to buy his previous generation Antminer S9, Avalon 741 and Xindong T2 machines.

If the energy efficiency ratio is between 53-110 W/TH and the electricity price is 0.36 yuan, there are many new generation mining machines that can still be profitable at today's coin prices. These include Antminer S19 Pro (110 TH/s), Antminer S19 (95 TH/s), Shenma Miner M30S (86 TH/s), Antminer S17 (73 TH/s) and Shenma Miner M31S (70 TH/s). All of these mining equipments have a daily income of between $6-15, depending on the computing power output per second of the machine.