Miner Weekly: Bitcoin Mining Is Consolidating Like Never Before
This article first appeared in Miner Weekly, BlocksBridge Consulting’s weekly newsletter curating the latest news in bitcoin mining and data analysis from TheEnergyMag. Subscribe to receive in your inbox once a week.
Bitcoin’s network hashrate—a measure of bitcoin’s computing power—saw a moderate increase last month, averaging 780 EH/s. However, this did not lessen the competition among the largest mining forces.
In January, the five largest public mining companies – MARA, CleanSpark, Cango, Iris Energy, and Riot – mined 21.07% of the total bitcoin block rewards.
For comparison, in January 2024, the top five public miners by proprietary bitcoin production were MARA, Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ), Riot, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR), collectively responsible for only 11.4% of total block rewards that month.
This increase in the combined market share of the top five public mining companies over the past year highlights industry-wide consolidation following the bear market and the new reality of ever-difficult bitcoin mining.
In fact, their combined market share was even higher at 21.84% in December before declining in January, despite their efforts to expand their combined hashrate capacity from 186.8 EH/s at the end of 2024 to 189.8 EH/s as of January 31, 2025.
The decline was due to curtailment activities aimed at stabilizing the grid during extreme weather conditions, contributing to a previous drop in difficulty. Some major public mining companies only achieved about 80% of their deployed hashrate capacity. MARA reported an energized capacity of 53 EH/s in January, yet its bitcoin production of 750 BTC indicated a realized hashrate of only 41 EH/s.
This dynamic intensified competition further among the top mining companies in January, with MARA’s decline and Riot’s catch-up, while CleanSpark, Cango, and Iris Energy maintained steady uptime.
According to TheEnergyMag’s Realized Hashrate metric, MARA dropped to the low 40 EH/s range in January, while CleanSpark, Cango, Riot, and Iris Energy competed closely in the 30 EH/s range. Iris Energy took a big leap in December, increasing its realized hashrate from 19.70 EH/s to 28.06 EH/s within a month, and closed out the year with 31 EH/s in deployed capacity. It will be interesting to see how they improve uptime as weather conditions recover in February.
Regulation News
- Senate committee rejects bill that would prohibit crypto mining near military facilities – Arkansas Online
- Russia Proposes Registry to Track Bitcoin Mining Hardware – TheEnergyMag
- Nebraska Bill Proposes $0.025/kWh Excise Tax on Bitcoin Mining – TheEnergyMag
Hardware and Infrastructure News
- Greenidge Scales Back Bitcoin Mining to Aid Grid During Cold Snap – TheEnergyMag
- Bitdeer to Build Power Plant for Bitcoin Mining after $21 Million Acquisition – TheEnergyMag
Corporate News
- Bitfarms is the latest bitcoin miner to explore AI/HPC alternatives – The Block
- Stronghold Fined for Breaching Power Market Rules to Mine Bitcoin – TheEnergyMag
- BlockFusion Renews Bid for Niagara Falls Bitcoin Mining Permit After Long Delay – TheEnergyMag
Financial News
- SoftBank Invests $50 Million in Cipher Mining to Boost HPC Expansion – TheEnergyMag
- Digihost Announces US$5.35 Million Private Placement – Link
- Bitcoin Mining Stocks Sink as Nasdaq Tumbles Following Trump’s Tariff Policy – TheEnergyMag
Feature
- Hive’s $85M Yguazú, Paraguay Acquisition w/ Frank Holmes + Aydin Kilic – The Mining Pod
- Hive’s Paraguay Acquisition, BTC Miner ETF, Hashrate for Charity, and DeepSeek – The Mining Pod
- Ohio: Bitcoin Mining’s Hidden Gem – The Mining Pod
- 2025 Is the Year of the AI/HPC Miner w/ Kevin Dede – The Mining Pod
