Bitcoin Mining Monthly: March '25

Market Trends

March 2025 saw bitcoin attempt to recover from February’s downturn, but persistent macroeconomic headwinds and miner-related sell pressure capped its upside. The price opened at $84,200, briefly climbed above $91,000, and closed the month at approximately $88,450, marking a 5% monthly gain. Market capitalization rebounded to $1.72 trillion, supported by moderate inflows into spot ETFs and growing institutional accumulation.

Investor sentiment improved slightly but remained cautious. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index hovered between 35 and 55, oscillating between neutral and mild fear. ETF inflows resumed in the second half of the month, particularly after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled a pause on further interest rate hikes, which boosted risk asset sentiment.

Mining stocks followed bitcoin’s modest gains but underperformed slightly due to continued concerns over squeezed margins. Most public mining companies ended the month flat to +3%, except those with diversification strategies into AI or energy, which attracted investor interest.

Network Metrics

March saw further expansion in the bitcoin network’s security and power:

This graph from Braiins Insights reflects the change in price, hashrate, and difficulty for the month of March.

• Hashrate: Averaged 794 EH/s, with a peak above 845 EH/s mid-month.
• Difficulty: Adjusted upward by 2.35% on March 10 and 2.99% on March 24, ending the month at a new high of 115.7 T.

• Hashprice: Ranged between $0.51 and $0.58/TH/day, ending at $0.556/TH/day, up slightly from February’s closing level.
• Hashvalue: Saw a similar path to hashvalue, closing at roughly 55.60 satoshis/TH.

The rising difficulty reflected continued deployment of next-generation hardware and recovery from February’s weather-related downtime. Miner margins remained tight, and average transaction fees accounted for only 1.2% of total mining revenue, continuing the low-fee trend.

Public Mining Companies Performance

Most public miners held production steady in March, with daily output improving due to the longer month. Efficiency gains and immersion cooling allowed some miners to outperform the network average.

Highlights:

• Marathon led all public miners, producing 823 BTC while increasing its energized hashrate to 55.3 EH/s. It launched a pilot project for direct-to-grid AI compute workloads in Ohio.
• CleanSpark added another 2.5 EH/s of capacity and announced a new 50 MW site in Kentucky.
• Riot earned $2.8M in power credits during ERCOT grid curtailments and reaffirmed plans to balance mining and AI hosting at its Corsicana campus.
• Bitfarms completed its acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining, expanding U.S.-based power capacity and gaining two power plants.

Nation-State Involvement

• United States: The proposed “Bitcoin Reserve” moved to committee review in Congress. Kentucky formally enacted pro-mining legislation protecting node operation and tax-exempt mining energy usage.
• Russia: Authorized five new mining zones in energy-surplus oblasts while restricting further activity in the Far East. Mined bitcoin may be used in bilateral trade agreements under new guidelines.
• Bhutan: Progressed with Bitdeer on its 600 MW hydropowered site. Their government aims to onboard more partners.
• El Salvador: President Bukele’s administration disclosed it had mined 57 BTC in Q1 2025 using geothermal energy.

Mining Hardware Developments

• MicroBT shipped the first wave of WhatsMiner M66S Hydro, offering 298 TH/s at ~6.2 kW (~18 J/TH).
• Bitdeer’s SEAL03 chip began volume production; SEALminer A3 units (targeting 9.7 J/TH) are expected to ship in Q2.

Fleet upgrades accelerated as older S19-series and M30-series rigs became marginal at current hashprice levels. Many miners reported decommissioning hardware >30 J/TH unless operating on sub-$0.035/kWh power. If you’re looking to upgrade your mining fleet, check out the Braiins Store for all your bitcoin mining hardware needs.

Mining Software and Pool Trends

• Braiins OS custom firmware was installed at 10 new sites.
• Foundry USA remained the top mining pool with ~29.8% share, followed by Antpool and F2Pool.
• Stratum V2 implementation pilots began at Riot and Hive. Both firms plan to migrate 100% of hashpower by Q4 2025.

Regulatory Changes and Policy Moves

• Europe: The European Commission released draft guidelines on ESG reporting for miners; voluntary until Q1 2026.
• Kazakhstan: Introduced new fee structures pegged to bitcoin’s price volatility, effective April 1.
• China: No formal mining policy shift, but reports of renewed underground mining in Yunnan surfaced mid-month.
• U.S. Treasury: Updated IRS guidance on capital gains reporting for mined bitcoin, aligning it with staking and airdrops.

Future Projections and Outlook

• Hashrate is expected to reach 875–900 EH/s in April due to ongoing fleet upgrades.
• Hashprice likely to remain below $60/PH/day unless bitcoin price rebounds past $95K.
• Top miners forecast continued consolidation and AI-driven diversification. Riot and Core Scientific are expected to announce new HPC client contracts in Q2.
• Mining equipment supply remains tight, with new ASIC batches sold out into late Q2. Pricing remains stable: $17–22/TH for top-tier machines.
• ESG reporting frameworks will gain traction globally, with North America and the EU leading.

March 2025 was a month of relative stability for the bitcoin mining industry, with rising hashrate, moderate price recovery, and a focus on operational efficiency. Miners with scale, low-cost power, and diversification strategies are best positioned for the challenges and opportunities ahead.