Bitcoin miners are experiencing a brutal profit squeeze.

In November, the market correction directly halved the unit hash rate revenue from $55 to $35 per PH/s—this figure has already fallen below the median cost of $44 for listed mining companies. Even worse, the total network hash rate is still soaring towards 1.1 ZH/s, pushing the payback period for the latest mining machines to over 1000 days.

You can tell how outrageous it is by doing the math: the next halving will probably come in about 3 years, but buying mining machines now means it will take almost 3 years to break even. What does this mean? Either you have ultra-low electricity costs, or you have wholesale prices for mining machines, otherwise, you are basically working for the power grid.

The industry reshuffle has already begun. Those small and medium-sized miners with excessive leverage and unable to control costs may be directly eliminated in this wave. Only those who survive will be qualified to wait for the next round of miner bonuses in the bull market.