BTC Mining in 2025: Profitability, Hash Rate, and Energy Trends After Halving

Author: Kyrian Alex, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

After the 2024 halving, Bitcoin mining enters its fifth era, with block rewards dropping from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This forces miners to rethink their operations, optimize efficiency, reduce energy costs, and upgrade hardware to remain profitable. Cointelegraph Research explores this shift in its latest report. The analysis covers ASIC efficiency improvements, corporate performance, geographic expansion, and new revenue models. As miners adapt, Bitcoin will enter a new era, where institutional momentum and sovereign adoption may redefine its role in the global financial system.

How the mining industry copes with rising hash rates and falling profit margins

Despite the adverse financial impact of the halving, the Bitcoin network's hash rate continues to climb. As of May 1, 2025, the network's total computing power reached 831 EH/s. Earlier this month, the hash rate peaked at 921 EH/s, up 77% from the 2024 low of 519 EH/s. This rapid recovery highlights the industry's relentless pursuit of efficiency, with large mining companies reinvesting in mining machine upgrades and energy optimization to maintain profitability. The mining arms race has always revolved around energy efficiency. As energy costs rise, the latest ASIC miners from Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan Creative are further optimizing the energy required per unit of hash value. Bitmain’s Antminer S21+ offers 216 TH/s of hashrate at 16.5 J/TH, while MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M66S+ pushes immersion cooling to 17 J/TH. Meanwhile, semiconductor giants TSMC and Samsung are driving the next wave of innovation, with 3nm chips already in production and 2nm on the horizon.

Profitability after the halving: Global shift to low-cost energy

The profitability of Bitcoin mining has dropped significantly after the halving. The hashrate price (daily revenue per terahertz/second) has dropped from $0.12 in April 2024 to about $0.049 in April 2025. At the same time, network difficulty has soared to an all-time high of 123 terahertz, making it even harder for miners to increase profitability. To remain competitive, operations must maximize every watt of power available. This shift has intensified the quest for cheap, reliable electricity, driving mining operations to expand to regions with lower energy costs.

Today, electricity prices determine mining profitability. In Oman, licensed miners enjoy government subsidies and electricity prices of $0.05 to $0.07 per kilowatt-hour, while in the UAE, semi-government projects have even lower electricity prices of only $0.035 to $0.045 per kilowatt-hour. These incentives have made the region a preferred destination for institutional-scale mining. Meanwhile, in the United States, industrial electricity costs often exceed $0.1 per kilowatt-hour, and miners face shrinking profits and are forced to relocate to more cost-effective regions. Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia have become key battlegrounds in this race, providing miners with the energy arbitrage opportunities they need to survive.

What does the future hold for Bitcoin mining?

The 2024 halving reinforces a hard truth: efficiency is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity. The industry as a whole is shifting to a leaner, more optimized operating model, where only the most energy-efficient miners will thrive. The rise of AI computing, global regulatory changes, and continued hardware advancements will continue to shape the industry over the next 12-18 months.