“The current quarter is likely to see direct production costs going beyond $70,000,” TheMinerMag mentioned in its industry update for May/June. A climb to $70,000 would indicate an approximately 9.4% rise, which could potentially squeeze less efficient Bitcoin miners as their profit margins decrease.

Despite the rising production costs, most miners still have a significant buffer with Bitcoin currently trading around $107,635. However, these estimates don’t factor in the depreciating value of the mining rigs or the Bitcoin earned from machines leased out to clients.

Keeping the fleet hashcost — the cost of computing power to mine Bitcoin — low is a top priority for public companies, especially with the increasing production costs. In Q1, the median fleet hashcost for public miners remained at roughly $34 per petahash per second (PH/s). However, companies like Terawulf and Bitdeer experienced more than a 25% rise in production costs, largely due to a spike in energy prices to $0.081 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in Q1, almost twice the $0.041 per kWh in Q1 2024.

Bitcoin mining stocks have shown a divergence, with investors leaning towards firms that have diversified revenue streams beyond Bitcoin mining. While Bitcoin saw a 1.35% increase between May 4 and June 13, IREN (IREN) jumped by 21.4%. Core Scientific (CORZ), Bit Digital (BTBT), and Cipher Mining (CIFR) also saw significant gains. On the other hand, Canaan (CAN) and Bitfarms (BITF) dropped by over 21%.

“The gap between the best and worst-performing mining equities has expanded notably, highlighting the growing investor focus on revenue diversification beyond Bitcoin mining,” TheMinerMag pointed out. Bitcoin miners have started branching out into AI hosting and high-performance computing services in recent months.

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