2025 Mining Chronicles: Hashrate Breaks Records, Mining Companies Transform, AI and Sovereign States Enter the Market

As the Bitcoin network hash rate surpasses 1 ZH/s (Zetta Hash per second) in December 2025, the mining industry enters a new era of competition. The total cost of mining a single Bitcoin for publicly listed mining companies has soared to approximately $137,800, making traditional mining nearly unprofitable.

The global mining landscape is undergoing a structural reshaping, mining companies are shifting from solely relying on mining revenues to seeking more stable business models. From political influence to sovereign states adopting Bitcoin as strategic reserves, the cryptocurrency mining industry in 2025 exhibits unprecedented diversification.

01 Mining Company Transformation Wave

Leading mining companies are accelerating their transition into AI and high-performance computing sectors. In July 2025, AI infrastructure unicorn CoreWeave announced the acquisition of Bitcoin miner Core Scientific through a full stock transaction, with an estimated valuation of about $9 billion.

The driving force behind this transformation is clear financial logic. In November, mining company IREN announced a five-year GPU cloud computing service agreement with Microsoft, totaling up to $9.7 billion.

Transforming into AI data centers has brought significant cash flow stability to mining companies. Firms like Hut 8 and Bit Digital (WhiteFiber) have also signed long-term (10-15 years) colocation agreements, monetizing their computing assets.

Among listed companies, those rapidly shifting to AI services have gained notable market recognition. The stock prices of IREN, Cipher Mining, and TeraWulf outperformed most crypto assets in 2025, even surpassing Nvidia.

02 Bitcoin Hash Rate Breakthrough and Cost Surge

In December, the Bitcoin network hash rate broke through the symbolic threshold of 1 ZH/s. This milestone signifies an unprecedented level of network security and marks the industry entering a highly competitive phase.

With exponential growth in hash rate, mining costs are also rising sharply. According to CryptoRank data, the average cash cost for listed mining companies to mine one BTC has reached about $74,600.

Shockingly, when accounting for depreciation and stock-based compensation (SBC), the total cost skyrockets to approximately $137,800. Such high costs have extended the breakeven period for mining equipment to over 1,200 days, with financing costs continuously rising.

Even the most efficient miners are barely able to break even, which directly prompts small and medium miners to exit and encourages large mining firms to diversify into AI businesses.

03 Political Influence Enters the Industry

The Trump family became deeply involved in crypto mining in 2025. In March, Donald Trump’s second son, Eric Trump, co-founded American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC) with Hut 8.

The company successfully raised $220 million and plans to go public on NASDAQ via a reverse merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. Despite this, ABTC’s stock price experienced a 50% single-day plunge in December due to the unlocking of restricted shares.

The involvement of the Trump family is seen as a significant signal of political support for domestic US mining. Eric Trump has publicly stated his commitment to building Bitcoin as a “strategic reserve” and promoting the US as a global hash rate hub.

The Trump-themed token WLFI also launched on major exchanges in September 2025, with an initial valuation exceeding $30 billion. The WLFI tokens held by the Trump family are valued at over $7 billion.

04 New Geopolitical Chessboard

The Russian government has adopted a “dual approach” to mining regulation. On one hand, it plans to implement year-round permanent bans on mining in regions like Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory.

Some bans will last until 2031, and illegal mining will be criminalized. On the other hand, Putin’s economic advisor Maxim Oreshkin publicly stated that Bitcoin mining is an “underestimated export project” for the country.

This provides support for the ruble’s exchange rate. Currently, Russia accounts for nearly 16% of global hash rate, second only to the US. The Central Bank and Ministry of Finance are attempting to include mining in international balance of payments statistics and use cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments to evade sanctions.

Sovereign states directly participating in mining is a new trend. Data from June shows that Bhutan has accumulated Bitcoin reserves worth about $1.3 billion, nearly 40% of its GDP, leveraging its abundant hydropower resources.

05 Stablecoin Giants’ Strategic Moves

Tether significantly accelerated its expansion into the mining sector in 2025. It invested in renewable energy mines in Uruguay and El Salvador, and in April announced deploying hash power on the decentralized mining pool protocol OCEAN.

This move aims to reduce centralization risks in mining. In terms of capital operations, Tether’s stake in Northern Data sold its mining division Peak Mining for $200 million in November.

Peak Mining shifted focus to AI data center business. Tether is leveraging its massive US dollar reserves to become a major financier and builder of global mining infrastructure.

In 2025, Tether’s expansion extended beyond mining, leading a $8 million strategic investment in payment infrastructure company Speed, promoting USDT’s deeper integration into everyday payments.

06 Mining Compliance and Market Rectification

In 2025, many countries increased crackdowns on illegal “power theft” mining. Malaysian authorities formed joint task forces using drones for reconnaissance, and in December announced the shutdown of nearly 14,000 illegal mining rigs.

These illegal activities have caused the national grid to lose over $1.1 billion since 2020. Similar actions were taken in Libya, Thailand, Russia, and other countries.

Criminal prosecutions targeted illegal power connections inside steel plants and unauthorized modifications of electrical meters in residential areas. Compliant electricity use and grid stability have become the bottom line for survival in mining.

The Ponzi scheme IcomTech, claiming to be a crypto mining operation, faced final judgment in December 2025. Its senior promoter, Magdaleno Mendoza, was sentenced to 6 years in prison and assets were confiscated.

07 Mining Machine Price War and Technological Innovation

By the end of 2025, due to crypto price fluctuations and reduced rewards after the halving, the mining machine market entered a winter. Industry giants like Bitmain sharply cut product prices.

According to internal December quotes, older models like S19 XP Hydro were priced as low as $3-4/TH/s, and even newer S21 series dropped to $7-8/TH/s, entering a “clearance” phase.

Meanwhile, Bit Deer released its self-developed SEALMINER miner, and Canaan launched the Avalon Mini series for home use. Market competition shifted from simple hash rate stacking to efficiency and customization for AI data centers.

This transformation in the mining machine market reflects the industry’s shift from extensive expansion to refined operations, where efficiency becomes a key survival factor.

08 “HODL” Strategies and Mining Company Financial Tactics

Despite significant operating cash flow pressures, mainstream listed mining companies persisted with a “HODL” strategy in 2025. Mara Holdings announced in August that its Bitcoin holdings exceeded 50,000 BTC, worth billions of dollars.

Companies like CleanSpark and Hyperscale Data followed suit; the latter’s Bitcoin holdings even accounted for 83% of its market value. These firms raise liquidity through convertible bonds, stock issuance, or using Bitcoin as collateral.

They avoid selling mined Bitcoin directly to pay electricity bills. This “high leverage HODL” approach makes mining stocks high-beta investments in Bitcoin.

However, this strategy carries risks. When crypto prices fall, these companies’ financial health can be severely impacted, and their stock prices may also suffer.

09 Tether’s Expansion and Challenges

Tether’s market cap reached $184 billion in 2025, becoming a liquidity cornerstone of the crypto market, with daily trading volumes often surpassing Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. But the stablecoin giant faces triple crises.

In Q4 2025, S&P downgraded its rating to the lowest “Weak” grade; BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes warned that a 30% drop in gold and Bitcoin holdings could lead to bankruptcy.

The UN and consumer organizations have accused USDT of being the preferred tool for scams, money laundering networks, and sanctioned entities in Southeast Asia. The reason for S&P’s downgrade is Tether’s aggressive accumulation of high-risk assets.

According to Q3 2025 attestation reports, high-risk assets increased from 17% to 24%. Tether holds $9.85 billion in Bitcoin and $12.9 billion in precious metals like gold.

10 Structural Changes in the Mining Ecosystem

Mining is transitioning from an era of “wild growth” to full compliance. The trial of the IcomTech Ponzi scheme and the trend of strengthening mining regulation worldwide reflect this shift.

This includes the SEC’s review of green energy hash rate projects and cross-border income transparency measures by tax authorities in multiple countries.

The structural transformation of the mining ecosystem is not only reflected in regulation but also in business models. As large miners shift toward AI services, whether Bitcoin network security will be affected remains an open question.

Some experts believe that Bitcoin mining may gradually move to the places with the cheapest and most abundant energy or become a sovereign domain. Countries like Bhutan, El Salvador, and the US might continue mining despite losses for reasons of national security.

Future Outlook

As the roar of mining machines is gradually replaced by the low hum of AI servers, the global Bitcoin hash rate map is being redrawn. On platforms like Gate, miners sell Bitcoin to fund operations, while investors capture industry transformation opportunities through digital asset allocations.

From mines in Texas to hydropower stations in Bhutan, from the Trump family’s business empire to Tether’s global footprint, hash power is becoming a new indicator of national competitiveness in the digital economy era. As sovereign states begin to view Bitcoin as a strategic reserve and traditional miners pivot to AI, cryptocurrency mining is no longer just a competition of raw hashing power.