New debt-fueled era for Bitcoin miners marked by 1 zetahash milestone – Report

Bitcoin mining surpassed the 1.034 zetahash per second (ZH/s) threshold in September, coinciding with a significant rise in miners' equity values, which nearly doubled to $90 billion by mid-October, even as BTC price slightly declined and hashprice fell below $47 per PH/s. This new phase is characterized by a shift toward balance sheet capacity, convertible debt financing, and leveraging AI colocation contracts as incremental revenue streams, moving away from sole reliance on block rewards. Record difficulty is squeezing operating margins, especially for miners without access to sub-$0.05/kWh power or the latest generation hardware, leading to payback periods ranging from 458 to 900 days based on current economics. The industry's financing structure has pivoted to zero-coupon convertibles, pushing cash interest into the future but creating a maturity risk in 24 to 36 months if equity momentum falters. The near-term outlook depends on miners successfully converting announced data-center and AI projects into steady non-mining revenue to sustain operations under the new high-difficulty baseline.

(Source：CryptoSlate)