For the first time since 2020, Ethereum mining has become unprofitable for many miners connected to a traditional energy grid. The price of Ethereum has dropped below $1,250 while energy prices are skyrocketing.
The average cost of electricity in states such as New England, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island is over $0.22 per kWh.
Using a single Nvidia 3090 overclocked to generate 130mh/s will cost miners around $1.85-$2.13 per day in electricity. The Ethereum reward for the same GPU is just (0.001625 ETH) $2.03 at today’s price. Therefore any miner paying more than $0.245 for electricity is now paying more for electricity than the value of Ethereum being mined.
At this point, it becomes more cost-effective to turn off the mining rig and buy Ethereum spot using the money that would otherwise be used on electricity. The profitability of mining with GPUs has been steadily decreasing over time. Ethereum is still the most profitable cryptocurrency to mine with a GPU meaning the others are even less profitable. The below graph shows Ethereum’s profitability over time.
Other options to mine
There are plenty of alternative cryptocurrencies that can be mined with a GPU. However, the others are also down considerably. At $0.245kwh, Ergo yields -$0.06, RavenCoin -$0.58/day, Ethereum Classic -$0.66, and Firo -$0.70 using a single Nvidia 3090. These are the contenders for GPU hashrate when Ethereum finally goes to proof of stake.
The issue is that an increase in miners on the network will dramatically increase the mining difficulty meaning that, to be remotely profitable, the price of the tokens will also have to increase considerably.
For Ethereum to become profitable again, either the difficulty needs to decrease or the price needs to rise above $1,400. Alternatively, should energy prices drop below $0.24kwh to match average costs in other parts of the United States, Ethereum would also become profitable.
Electricity prices in other countries are even higher than even the highest-priced states. The average cost in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Denmark is above $0.25kwh, making GPU mining unprofitable across most of Europe.