Bitcoin miners on the edge ⛏️

Bitcoin miners are becoming unprofitable in several countries, as the cost of mining outpaces the price of BTC.

Author

Stephen Graves
January 27, 2026

📝 What you need to know

With Bitcoin’s price in the doldrums, miners in some countries are at risk of becoming unprofitable, based on data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) and the average cost per kWh of energy.

In the U.S, the cost of mining Bitcoin even at cheaper industrial electricity rates is perilously close to Bitcoin’s current price of around $88,500—and in some countries such as New Zealand, mining has already fallen below the profit threshold, according to crypto trade bodies.

While some American miners have taken “strategic decisions” to reduce their risk profile, or pivoted to becoming AI data centers, those who’ve taken on too much debt to operate, or who have deployed overpriced or “quickly obsolete” hardware, face the prospect of unprofitability.

And with another Bitcoin halving coming in two years, miners will be eyeing the cryptocurrency’s price ever more closely.

Bitcoin’s Falling Price Puts Miners on Edge

Data from the CBECI suggest that any miner paying at least $0.10 per kWh for energy will be making a loss on each Bitcoin mined.

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