Over time, the difficulty of mining a Bitcoin under Proof of Work goes higher. As the price of BTC has cratered in recent weeks, the cost to mine a single Bitcoin could surpass the value of a single Bitcoin.
According to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and their Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, the cost of minting a single Bitcoin could be as high (upper bound) as $92,042. The caveat here is that the estimated cost is $50,579, while the lower bound is currently $25,000. So it depends.
MacroM is a bit more pessimistic. Leveraging CCAF data, MacroM reports that the average mining cost of BTC as of yesterday was $89,171. In this scenario, Bitcoin miners are losing money.
Of course, not all miners are the same. Some operations have access to very inexpensive energy, the main cost. At the same time, smaller operations that are less efficient could be losing money.
The Bitcoin halving in April 2024 slashed the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, significantly increasing the cost per coin. Fortunately for miners, there is some time before the next event, which is scheduled for 2028, so there is some time for Bitcoin to bounce, something the digital asset has been known to do.
