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How public Bitcoin mining companies make money

Public cryptocurrency mining companies earn block rewards and fees for confirming Bitcoin transactions, and many sell the bitcoin they mine.

Vahe HakobyanEditor-in-chief Updated Oct 6, 20263 min readFact-checked

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What is a public Bitcoin mining company?How do they turn mining into revenue?What costs decide mining profitability?How is this different from cloud mining?What risks affect public mining companies?FAQ

Key takeaways

Miners earn block rewards and fees for confirming transactions.
US listed miners file reports with the SEC.
Electricity and hardware are the biggest costs.
The block reward halves and difficulty can cut revenue.

Short answer

Public cryptocurrency mining companies are listed businesses that run machines to confirm Bitcoin transactions. They earn new bitcoin and fees.

Their shares trade on an exchange, so their financial reports are public. A miner's share price reacts to bitcoin and to the company's own debt.

What is a public Bitcoin mining company?

A public Bitcoin mining company has shares that trade on an exchange. Its machines confirm Bitcoin transactions and earn new bitcoin plus fees, and US listed miners must report their finances to the SEC.

How do they turn mining into revenue?

The bitcoin a miner receives is its main revenue. A company can sell the coins for cash, hold them, or borrow against them.

What miners do with the bitcoin
Choice	What it means
Sell	Pays for power
Hold	Keeps the coins
Borrow	Uses coins as collateral

What costs decide mining profitability?

Electricity and mining hardware are the biggest costs. The price of power decides whether a machine earns more than it costs to run.

Price of electricity
Machine cost and efficiency
Cooling and upkeep
Debt payments

How is this different from cloud mining?

Cloud mining means paying for a share of someone else's computing power. A public mining company sells shares, so you own part of the business and its debts.

Miner shares and cloud contracts
	Public miner shares	Cloud mining contract
What you own	Part of the company	Computing power
Main risk	Company debt	Provider terms

What risks affect public mining companies?

Bitcoin's block reward halves on a schedule, most recently in April 2024. Rising network difficulty can also cut revenue, because more machines compete for the same reward.

Risks to check

Power price spikes
Machine breakdowns
Debt payments
Selling or holding decisions

Bitcoin price todayLive price, charts and market data live in our Coins section.

Frequently asked questions

Some do, and many do not, because cash goes to power and hardware first.

No. Some mine other proof-of-work coins, and some host machines for other miners.

They sign long-term power contracts and build near low-cost power sources.

Lenders can seize machines and pledged bitcoin, and the company may restructure or fail.

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Written byVahe HakobyanVahe Hakobyan is the editor-in-chief of World-Crypt. He covers bitcoin, markets and regulation, and leads the newsroom that fact-checks every story before it goes live.