Mining profitability March 2024: the bull run is crazy!
With Bitcoin at $58,000, which mining machines were earning the most at the start of the 2024 bull run? In this video (in French), we take stock of profitability: we review the Bitcoin, CKB and Kaspa ASICs of the moment, then graphics card mining and the mineable coins that rose the most. We end with some advice on the right time to buy hardware.
Video from late February 2024: the figures below date from that time. See "What about today?" at the end of the article.
A market on fire
At the time of filming, Bitcoin is worth $58,000: it's crazy. In our view, this rise is probably also linked to large financial institutions investing massively through ETFs. The net earnings of the machines below are calculated with electricity at 8 cents per kWh.
The Antminer K7: the big surprise
Hardly anyone talks about it, yet the Antminer K7 (58 TH/s for 2,800 W), which mines CKB on the Nervos Network, is one of the most profitable ASICs of the moment, on a par with Kaspa machines:
- it earns $765 per month;
- it costs €4,400 including VAT at the standard European price;
- with about €550 net per month, the payback time is 8 months, for a machine bought officially, VAT included and delivered.
Other strengths: the next CKB halving is only due in 45 months, and CKB is the mined coin that rose the most over 3 months, up 400%.
Bitcoin: S19k Pro and S21
- Antminer S19k Pro: 120 TH/s for a reasonable 2,750 W, with a boost mode that takes it to 136 TH/s (at a higher consumption). It earns $330 per month and costs about €2,200 including VAT: a very good price-to-hashrate ratio.
- Antminer S21 (200 TH/s): the latest generation earns $560 per month; after deducting about $200 of electricity, $356 remains. Its price has dropped a lot, to around €5,000 including VAT, for a payback time of about 17 months at the current difficulty.
We bought three S21 units ourselves, which have arrived in a data center in Iceland. For us, Bitcoin mining is a long-term choice: the safe bet.
Kaspa: the KS5 changes the game
With the new KS5, Bitmain goes from just over 9 TH/s (KS3) to 20 TH/s, for roughly the same consumption of about 3,000 W: the machine is twice as efficient. It earns $6,700 per month, but costs around €40,000, the price of a Tesla. On paper, the payback time is 7 months.
The problem is difficulty: when Bitmain releases a model, it produces thousands of units, and all that hashrate lands on the network. Next to it, older models become less attractive: the 9 TH/s KS3 costs about €20,000, the 8 TH/s version about €17,000, and the KS3M, which only has 6 TH/s and draws a little more than the KS5, about €8,000.
GPU: time for "spec mining"
For GPU mining, the situation has not changed: in France, it is hard for an individual to be profitable. With electricity at 10 or 11 euro cents (Tempo tariff, solar panels, etc.):
- an RTX 4070 earns €0.80 per day, leaving €0.50 per card after electricity;
- an RTX 3070 earns €0.70, leaving about €0.30, and the card can now be found for €250.
GPU mining is now a matter of "spec mining": mining new coins and betting on their rise. There is no shortage of examples: Alephium gained 700% in 3 months, including 78% over the last month, and Conflux went from 4 to 25 cents in a year. We also think of a client who owned 64 RTX 3060 Ti cards spread over 8 rigs and sold everything as soon as the Ethereum Merge happened.
Our advice
In our opinion, now may be the time to buy hardware, because prices are likely to rise with the bull run. Not necessarily for GPUs, but for ASICs, watch out: prices can go up.
What about today?
Since this video, the April 2024 halving has cut the Bitcoin miners' reward in half, from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block, and machine prices, difficulty and earnings have kept changing. The figures above therefore need to be recalculated before any purchase.
To estimate a machine's profitability today, use our Bitcoin mining profitability calculator and browse our ASIC miners. To find out more about hosting in Iceland, read our conversation with Florent Gabriel of Blobb.io, or have a look at our miner hosting.