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ZEC Block reward miners turn to Zcash: Revenue per megawatt hour is four times that of Bitcoin miners
As the price of the privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) soars, its market value has become one of the top ten in the world. Currently, leading Zcash miners earn about four times the revenue per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity consumed by the best Bitcoin miners. For miners whose mining returns have continued to decline in recent years due to factors such as halving events, Zcash's high potential benefits have made power distribution decisions clear.
Why did the Z15 Pro suddenly surpass Bitcoin's top ASIC mining machine?
The balance of mathematical calculations has tilted towards privacy coins. According to data from the energy media The Energy Mag, as of August, a Bitmain Z15 Pro miner could generate approximately $727.30 per megawatt hour of electricity while mining Zcash; on June 30, the figure was $585.61. In contrast, the most advanced Bitmain S23 Pro miner earned only $179 under the same indicator when mining Bitcoin, while the older S21 Pro miner earned as low as $113.45. Only the artificial intelligence cloud computing workload, which generated revenue of nearly US$941/MH, exceeded the performance of Zcash miners.
As of early September, as more machines joined the network, Z15 Pro's revenue fell to about $708 per megawatt hour, about 3% below its August peak. The earnings trend is pegged to the price of ZEC, which hit an all-time high of $890 in August.
ETF funds ignite the fuse
The core of mining economics is the rise in token prices, driven by Grayscale. The company converted its Zcash trust funds into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and listed ZCSH on the NYSE Arca on August 25, becoming the first U.S. financial product to provide spot exposure to private currencies.
According to Grayscale, the fund's assets under management exceeded $500 million in two weeks. It also included approximately US$100 million in funding from DCG International Investment Corporation, an affiliate of Grayscale's parent company Digital Currency Group, which handed over 85,705.32563297 ZECs in exchange for shares.
ZEC prices continue to climb as funds flow in. On September 4, the token exceeded the US$1,000 mark for the first time. CoinMarketCap data showed that its current price was close to US$1,180 and its market value was approximately US$20 billion. On September 3, Grayscale attributed the price increase to "the concept of hard currency and people's increased awareness of digital privacy."
Zcash's battle for computing power
High profits have attracted a large number of participants, but they are also diluting marginal revenue.
Cypherpunk Technologies (NASDAQ: CYPH), backed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, paid US$33.33 million in August to build what it calls the world's largest Zcash mine, with a capacity of approximately 4.2 GSol/s, accounting for approximately 18% of the network's capacity. The company currently holds nearly 2% of ZEC supply and plans to increase its holdings to 5%.
Other agencies followed suit. Foundry USA launched an "institutional" Zcash mining pool in March and increased its mining share to nearly 30% within a month. Fortitude Mining Holdings, another DCG subsidiary, purchased a 12.5-megawatt site in Nebraska to expand its business.
As the network finally grows faster than price increases, each participant's share of the total rewards of approximately 43,800 ZECs per month is shrinking.
Bitcoin miners are withdrawing
The Zcash craze coincides with the fading of Bitcoin mining. BTC prices stalled after hitting $82,000 on September 3 and are currently trading at around $77,000, with Internet difficulty reported to be raised again on September 19.
Canaan reported second-quarter mining revenue of US$17.7 million, net loss of US$97.6 million, and third-quarter revenue guidance was as low as US$11 million. Many miners are turning entirely to the field of artificial intelligence. Riot Platforms reportedly signed a $9 billion, 20-year computing agreement with Anthropic on August 25, while Bitdeer reached a 16-year cooperation agreement.
