This analysis originated in Miner Weekly, the newsletter from BlocksBridge Consulting. It offers a curated summary of bitcoin mining news and data analytics sourced from TheMinerMag. Get it delivered weekly – subscribe today.
Bitcoin network’s processing power, also known as hashrate, saw a modest rise last month, averaging around 780 exahashes per second (EH/s). This increase, however, didn’t lessen the intensity of competition amongst the leading bitcoin mining firms.
Looking back to January of last year, the five largest publicly traded mining companies – specifically MARA, CleanSpark, Cango, Iris Energy, and Riot – collectively accounted for approximately 21.07% of all bitcoin block rewards generated.
Shifting to January 2024 as a comparative point, the landscape had changed. The top five public miners, ranked by their individual bitcoin production, were MARA, Core Scientific, Riot, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining. Their combined output only equated to about 11.4% of the total block rewards for that particular month.
This upswing in the collective market control held by the top five public mining entities over the past year signals a trend toward consolidation within the bitcoin mining industry, particularly after the recent bear market and the present-day challenges of increasingly difficult bitcoin mining conditions.
Actually, their total market share was even more significant in December, reaching 21.84%, before experiencing a dip in January. This occurred despite their combined efforts to grow their hashrate capacity, moving from 186.8 EH/s at 2024’s close to 189.8 EH/s by January 31, 2025.
The reason for the decrease was due to grid stabilization protocols triggered by harsh weather conditions, leading to a previous reduction in mining difficulty. Some of the major public mining companies were able to only reach around 80% of their installed hashrate capacity. For instance, MARA announced an energized capacity of 53 EH/s in January, but their actual bitcoin production of 750 BTC suggested a realized hashrate of roughly 41 EH/s.
This situation fueled further competition among the top mining companies in January. MARA’s performance declined, while Riot moved to compensate. On the other hand, CleanSpark, Cango, and Iris Energy experienced consistent uptime.
According to TheMinerMag’s Realized Hashrate data, MARA’s output decreased to the low 40 EH/s range in January. Meanwhile, CleanSpark, Cango, Riot, and Iris Energy competed at around the 30 EH/s range. Iris Energy significantly increased its realized hashrate from 19.70 EH/s to 28.06 EH/s in just one month. It closed the year with 31 EH/s in deployed capacity, and industry watchers are keen to see if this uptime improves when weather conditions improve in February.
Regulatory Developments
- Arkansas Senate committee rejects a bill aiming to ban crypto mining near military facilities – Arkansas Online
- Russian government proposes a registry to track bitcoin mining equipment – TheMinerMag
- A proposed Nebraska law would impose a $0.025/kWh excise tax on bitcoin mining operations – TheMinerMag
Hardware and Infrastructure Updates
- Greenidge reduces bitcoin mining operations to assist the power grid during a cold snap – TheMinerMag
- Bitdeer is set to construct a power plant for bitcoin mining after a $21 million acquisition – TheMinerMag
Company News
- Bitfarms joins other bitcoin miners exploring opportunities in AI/HPC – The Block
- Stronghold is fined for breaking power market regulations related to bitcoin mining – TheMinerMag
- BlockFusion re-applies for a bitcoin mining permit in Niagara Falls after a significant delay – TheMinerMag
Financial Headlines
- SoftBank invests $50 million in Cipher Mining to help with its HPC expansion – TheMinerMag
- Digihost announces a private placement valued at US$5.35 million – Link
- Bitcoin mining stocks experience a decline as the Nasdaq falls due to Trump’s tariff policies – TheMinerMag
Featured Content
- An overview of Hive’s $85M Yguazú, Paraguay acquisition, featuring Frank Holmes and Aydin Kilic – The Mining Pod
- Podcast discussion of Hive’s Paraguay Acquisition, BTC Miner ETFs, Hashrate for Charity, and DeepSeek – The Mining Pod
- An exploration of Ohio as a potentially overlooked hub for Bitcoin Mining – The Mining Pod
- Insights into why 2025 is poised to be the year of the AI/HPC miner, featuring Kevin Dede – The Mining Pod