The fourth Bitcoin halving in the history of BTC is expected in April 2024. This has major implications for Bitcoin miners – and leading market players are already preparing offensives and takeovers.
The business of Bitcoin miners is an extremely exciting sector in the world of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin miners invest in expensive hardware in order to generate a new BTC block as often as possible, which then also contains a monetary reward. These mining rewards currently amount to 6.25 BTC and will be halved to 3.125 BTC with the Bitcoin Halving expected for April 2024. Experts currently consider a Bitcoin price of at least USD 19,000 to be a prerequisite for a successful business model for miners and this mark is likely to increase significantly with the upcoming halving.
It is therefore obvious that large Bitcoin miners are already thinking about how to deal with the future. Competition is fierce and rising BTC prices are by no means guaranteed. Market leader Marathon Digital (MARA) now writes in its monthly report that it has more than 800 million US dollars ready to take advantage of “strategic opportunities”, including “industry consolidation”. In plain language: If smaller miners get into financial difficulties due to Bitcoin mining, MARA wants to be ready for takeovers.
Announcements and decisions made by other Bitcoin miners can be interpreted in a similar way. Hut 8 already merged with US Bitcoin at the end of November in order to become fit for increasing competition, according to a press release. CleanSpark announced that it is holding almost 170 million US dollars in reserve “to take advantage of any halving opportunities that may arise”. And Riot Platforms announced a week ago that it had ordered the latest Bitcoin mining hardware for USD 290 million in order to gain an advantage.
A look at Bitcoin blockchain data also shows how the competition among miners is intensifying. The hashrate is at a record level. It shows how much computing power is connected to the Bitcoin network. The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has also reached an all-time high. This automatically adapts to developments in the hashrate. Bitcoin miners therefore currently have to factor in more costs than ever before in order to position themselves promisingly in the competition for the next BTC block.
Conclusion: Bitcoin Halving poses major challenges for miners
Many of the major Bitcoin miners are themselves listed on the stock exchange and their future strategies are therefore subject to publication obligations to a certain extent. The reports from MARA, Hut 8 and others already indicate that the industry is preparing for the consequences of Bitcoin Halving and that takeovers are likely. The wild days of Bitcoin mining are long gone and it is becoming clear that “the big guys will eat the little guys”, as observers whimsically put it.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind you once again: if someone in Germany promises you that you as a private individual could have prospects of making a profit from your own Bitcoin mining, this is simply nonsense and probably even a scam. You can find our model calculation for Bitcoin mining in 2023 for Germany here and the calculations will be even tighter from April after the Halving, even for professionals. However, if you are still interested in the topic, you have the option of investing directly in listed Bitcoin miners.
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