Public Miners Phase Out S19s Amid Stagnant Bitcoin Hashprice
Several publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have retired older-generation mining equipment as Bitcoin’s hashprice remains stagnant below $55/PH/s.
In its latest monthly production update, Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) reported selling 4,509 units of the Antminer S19 model at $1.9/TH/s last month. The company simultaneously upgraded its fleet by purchasing 941 units of the newer S21 model for $3.2 million at $17/TH/s.
This wave of fleet upgrades mirrors actions by other publicly traded miners as the industry grapples with tightening profit margins driven by escalating competition from more powerful and efficient hardware.
As previously reported, Iris Energy sold 4.1 EH/s worth of its S19j Pro Antminers during Q3 2024. An additional 1.2 EH/s of S19j Pro miners was classified as “assets held for sale” in subsequent months.
Meanwhile, CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) disclosed in its latest quarterly filing that it has begun phasing out the S19, S19j Pro, and S19j Pro+ models following Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving. The company expects to remove these miners from service entirely by December 2024.
In Q4 2024, Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) also auctioned off its S19j Pro and M30S++ miners to make way for its proprietary Sealminer equipment. On Wednesday, Bitdeer announced it has energized 0.3 EH/s of its SEALMINER A1 units, while an additional 0.9 EH/s is either in transit or awaiting installation. Another 2.5 EH/s is currently in production.
Despite Bitcoin’s historic market rally in December—surpassing $105,000—Bitcoin’s hashprice has not experienced a significant breakout, constrained by increasing network hashrate and difficulty.
As of this writing, daily mining revenue stands at approximately $54.7/PH/s, roughly 50% below pre-halving levels. This means miners using the S19j Pro model, which has an efficiency of 30 J/TH, cannot break even if electricity costs exceed $0.076/kWh.
According to estimates from Coin Metrics, Bitmain’s S19 series—dominant during the 2020 halving epoch—still accounts for about 50% of Bitcoin’s total network hashrate.
