Grayscale: Zcash Mining Pays More Than Bitcoin
Grayscale points to higher returns per machine and per megawatt-hour, while Bitcoin remains much larger in terms of network size and daily rewards. The Zcash rally and the new spot ETF ZCSH are boosting interest.
Key Takeaways
- Grayscale Research says Zcash mining is currently more profitable for individual miners than Bitcoin mining.
- Bitcoin miners together earn about $35 million per day, compared with around $2 million for Zcash miners.
- The higher Zcash returns are tied to the strong price, rising hashrate, and the use of ASIC hardware.
Zcash mining is currently more profitable for individual miners, according to a new analysis from Grayscale Research than Bitcoin mining. At the same time, Bitcoin remains far larger in total scale, with much higher daily rewards and a much bigger hashrate.
Bitcoin Remains Bigger
Research director Zach Pandl says Bitcoin miners together earn about $35 million (€30.2 million) per day, compared with about $2 million (€1.7 million) for Zcash miners. That gap is mainly due to Bitcoin's much larger main chain and the size of its network.
On an individual level, the picture is different. Grayscale estimates that an average Zcash mining rig generates about twice as much daily revenue as a comparable Bitcoin machine. Per megawatt-hour, the difference is even bigger: according to the analysis, Zcash mining brings in about four times as much revenue as Bitcoin mining, and in some cases even more than certain AI and high-performance computing cloud services.
Zcash Benefits From a Strong Price
According to Grayscale, the higher returns are mainly tied to Zcash's strong price performance. The privacy coin broke above $1,000 (€863) on September 4 for the first time in nearly ten years and is now around $1,157.95 (€999). That is also reflected in mining activity: the total Zcash hashrate has become more than 2.5 times higher this year.
Another factor is that Zcash mining now mainly runs on ASIC hardware. According to market practice, GPUs are no longer a serious option, which means the sector is increasingly in the hands of specialized machines.
Why This Matters
For European crypto followers, this shows how quickly the economics behind mining can shift between networks. The comparison between Bitcoin and Zcash is not just about price, but also about hardware, power costs, and network dynamics. Grayscale also points out that Zcash profitability depends heavily on electricity prices, which means the outcome for miners can vary a lot by region.
Grayscale itself converted its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF, ZCSH, which was listed on NYSE Arca on August 25 and had already gathered more than $500 million (€431 million) in assets within two weeks. That shows interest in Zcash is coming not only from mining, but also from the broader market for crypto investment products.
