Hashprice Hits Rock Bottom

Bitcoin miners are having a bit of a meltdown lately. You know, the kind when your bank account balance mysteriously shrinks, and you start questioning your life choices? Yep, it’s that serious! The key number everyone in the mining biz keeps their eye on—the hash price—has taken a nosedive, plummeting to around $42 per PH/s. Just a few months earlier, it was partying at a lofty $62. Yikes!

Small Miners Feeling the Heat

This drop isn’t just a statistic; it’s a real crisis for small miners. With profits dwindling, some of these hapless operators are thinking about hitting the power switch on their rigs. I mean, can you blame them? When revenue dips like this, it’s like trying to pay your utility bill with Monopoly money!

Hardware Makers in Trouble Too

And guess what? It’s not just the miners who are sweating bullets. The machine makers and hosting firms are in the hot seat as well. Orders for new shiny toys (a.k.a. mining hardware) have slowed to a crawl. Even the great Bitcoin has lost smidgeons of its value after a wild market ride in October. Who can keep up with this rollercoaster?

Desperate Measures: Self-Mining!

In a bid to stay afloat, some manufacturers are rolling up their sleeves and getting into self-mining mode. Yes, you heard it right! Companies like Bitdeer have decided that if they can’t get sales, they might as well power up their own machines and mine some Bitcoin for themselves. It’s like turning your home into a mini bitcoin factory because hey, why not?

ASIC Farms: The Struggle Is Real

Running those fancy ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) farms is tougher than ever. With high costs and the constant rise in hashrate, it’s like trying to keep a plant alive in the Sahara. And don’t forget about the halving that happened back in April 2024, which chopped the block reward down to a mere 3.125 BTC. Talk about a slap in the face!

Power Moves: Big Deals in the Industry

Then there are the big shots making big bucks in different ways. Cipher Mining struck a whopper of a deal worth $5.5 billion with Amazon Web Services to keep some cash flowing in October. Meanwhile, IREN signed up with Microsoft for GPU services at a staggering $9.7 billion. It seems these companies know how to pivot when Bitcoin profits start looking sad!

Bitcoin’s Price Woes

To make matters worse, Bitcoin’s price has been playing hide-and-seek, dropping below $100,000 and trading as much as 20% lower than its peak of over $126,000 on October 6. It’s almost like watching your favorite show get canceled after a cliffhanger!

A Grim Outlook?

Analysts are shaking their heads too. It seems long-term holders are having a massive garage sale, selling over a million bitcoins since June. Plus, a liquidation event on October 10 rattled the market so badly that it made the floor break at $117,000 and $112,000.

What Does the Future Hold?

Markus Thielen, the big brain behind 10X Research, suggests we might not be out of the woods just yet. He’s thinking we could still see Bitcoin go down before it starts climbing back up again. His prediction? A possible dip to $100,000 might just be a few weeks away. So, grab some popcorn and watch the drama unfold!

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView