BTC miners shut down older generation rigs as prices test new depths

Bitcoin’s price is currently digging for gold, having fallen from highs above $120,000 to around $96,000, and it has triggered a sharp downturn in the mining sector, with revenues plunging to April levels after a sudden $7,000 drop in BTC’s value.

According to a popular Chinese BTC miner on X, the previous generation of Bitcoin mining machines, the S19 and M60 series, have reached shutdown price, and if those running them do not shut them down, the electricity bill next month will start losing money.

Outdated miners are packing up

The announcement comes as miners are ditching the older generation of Bitcoin mining equipment because of limiting factors like higher power draw and lower hash rates. 

Small and mid-sized miners that can’t boast scale like giants like Marathon Digital or Riot Platforms have been getting shut down the most, with the less efficient legacy equipment being idled first to preserve cash flow.

This has reportedly contributed to a slight dip in global hashrate with operators prioritizing newer, energy-efficient rigs. About half of the network’s miners were already at or near “shutdown prices” as of earlier this year, but the current dip has been fanning the flames. 

How the mining industry is faring amid the current BTC dip

The current dip makes it the third time Bitcoin has dipped beneath the $100,000 mark in November, and that has strengthened fearmongers who have been calling the top for weeks on end. 

The fall has also affected Bitcoin mining stock prices, which were swept up in a wider market sell-off on Friday that drained nearly $8 billion from the cohort’s collective market capitalization in one day.

Miners Bitdeer Technologies Group and Bitfarms have reported dumps of 20% and 17%, respectively, in their share prices, while Cipher Mining’s fell 13%. Even Mara Holdings, which holds the most Bitcoin among miners, was down over 10%.

According to BitcoinMiningStock.io, a platform that tracks metrics for 34 publicly traded Bitcoin mining stocks, the sector’s market cap dropped from $69.1 billion to $61.3 billion between November 12 and November 13.

Week-over-week, the cohort’s total capitalization is down 22% from $78.7 billion, and they’re down an extra 35% from the all-time high capitalization of $94.2 billion they achieved on October 15.

Bitcoin miners who had dipped into AI were affected more than most. Many in the cohort had declined by double digits already, but Thursday’s price action made things worse, making it one of the most brutal weeks for the sector.