Grayscale Research: Zcash Mining Outperforms Bitcoin in Per-Machine Revenue

Key facts

• Grayscale Research estimates Bitcoin miners collectively generate around $35 million in daily rewards, compared with roughly $2 million for Zcash miners.
• A typical Zcash mining rig generates about twice the daily revenue of a comparable Bitcoin mining machine.
• Zcash mining produces approximately four times as much revenue per megawatt-hour as Bitcoin mining under Grayscale’s assumptions.
• ZEC recently climbed to around $1,155, its highest level in roughly nine years, with a market capitalization of approximately $19.5 billion.
• Zcash network mining activity has increased more than 2.5 times since the beginning of the year.
• Grayscale’s analysis compares a Bitmain S23 Hydro Bitcoin miner with a Bitmain Z15 Pro Zcash miner, assuming electricity costs of $0.05 per kilowatt-hour, full uptime, and no transaction-fee revenue.
• Bitcoin uses SHA-256 ASICs while Zcash uses the Equihash algorithm, so mining machines cannot switch networks.
• Grayscale’s Zcash investment product, ZCSH, began trading on NYSE Arca on August 25 and attracted about $179 million in net assets during its first 11 trading days, taking assets under management above $700 million.