{"id":287172,"date":"2018-11-26T14:37:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=287172"},"modified":"2018-11-26T14:37:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:37:22","slug":"battered-bitcoin-miners-seen-shutting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/287172\/battered-bitcoin-miners-seen-shutting-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Battered Bitcoin miners seen shutting down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency\u2019s crash may be throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n

The Bitcoin network\u2019s hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24% from an all-time high at the end of August through Nov. 24, according to Blockchain.com.<\/p>\n

While the decline may have partially resulted from miners switching to other cryptocurrencies, JPMorgan Chase & Co. says some in the industry are losing money after Bitcoin\u2019s price tumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that prices have declined to a point where mining is becoming uneconomical for some,\u201d JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a Nov. 23 report, in reference to the falling hash rate.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin miners, who perform the computations necessary to confirm transactions in the cryptocurrency, are rewarded for their efforts with Bitcoins. If prices suffer a sustained drop below miners\u2019 breakeven costs (determined by their electricity bills, mining-rig efficiency, and other factors), they may be forced to shut down to avoid operating at a loss.<\/p>\n

The break-even cost to mine a single Bitcoin using Bitmain\u2019s Antminer S9 rig was estimated at $7,000 in a Nov. 16 report by Fundstrat Global Advisors, though the level is probably lower for some miners with access to cheap electricity and equipment. Bitcoin, which has tumbled about 80% from its December peak, was trading at $3,912 as of 5:35 a.m. New York time on Monday.<\/p>\n

A big miner shakeout could be bad news for chipmakers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Nvidia Corp who supply the industry, along with mining-rig designers like Bitmain Technologies Ltd that are pursuing initial public offerings.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a silver lining for miners who survive the drop in prices, notes Ryan Rabaglia, Hong Kong-based head trader at OSL, a cryptocurrency dealing firm. As weaker hands leave the Bitcoin network, the difficulty of mining the cryptocurrency declines. A cull could ultimately benefit the survivors, assuming Bitcoin\u2019s price doesn\u2019t fall too fast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Read: Bitcoin is down 75% in 2018 as it closes in on $3,500<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency\u2019s crash may be throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":225247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[5537,26],"class_list":["post-287172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bitcoin","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287184,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287172\/revisions\/287184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}