How Ethereum miners are defying the merge
The Ethereum merge is pulling the plug on miners.
The Ethereum merge is pulling the plug on miners. They’re re-positioning themselves—and eyeing alternative cryptocurrencies.
The days of mining are numbered for Ethereum as the move to Proof of Stake is on the home stretch. The effects of the merge are already showing, with alternative blockchains seeing a sharp uptick in hashing power. Some so‑called “major players” also appear to be switching to alternative cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum Classic - back to its roots
A trend recently seen on some networks: rapid spikes in hashrate. At least for cryptocurrencies that, like Ethereum, have been mined with GPUs (graphics cards). With Ethereum dropping mining activity due to the shift to Proof of Stake, miners appear to be reorienting to lucrative alternatives.
Miners reinventing themselves
The merge poses the question for miners: what’s next? Mining other cryptocurrencies can still be profitable, but much less so than Ethereum. An industry player like Hive Blockchain is pursuing this strategy post-merge. The publicly traded miner announced in a press release this week that it had “started analyzing mining other GPU‑minable coins.”
Another example is Hut 8 Mining. The company, also listed on the exchange, said it would make computing power available in other areas as well. The machines can be “turned on on demand,” Hut 8 said, to offer clients AI, machine learning, or VFX rendering services. The idea: high‑performance computing on demand.
Three alternatives
The Ethereum fusion leaves a hole—especially in miners’ revenue, who see the consensus change as a financial setback at first. Even with alternative cryptocurrencies, the losses aren’t fully covered. About 97% of daily mining revenue goes to Ethereum.
The more profitable path would be to sell the hardware and use the proceeds to participate in staking, as BitFlyer's CM0 Butta, who runs the largest Ether mining pool via Ethermine, notes. This trend has also shown up in recent months, evident in the drop in used GPU prices.
So miners have three options: mine other coins, sell their GPUs and stake in exchange, or—like Hut 8 Mining—offer computing power for other services. Whatever route miners choose, the merge will shake up the crypto ecosystem.
