Zcash Overtakes Bitcoin in Mining Profitability
Grayscale Research has conducted an analysis of Bitcoin and Zcash mining profitability. According to their findings, while Bitcoin dominates in terms of scale, Zcash is currently more profitable per machine and unit of electricity consumed.
Zcash mining rewards are approximately twice as high as those for Bitcoin per machine, with a roughly fourfold difference in revenue per megawatt-hour (MWh). This disparity is largely due to the strong price performance of ZEC, which has crossed $1,000 for the first time in nearly a decade and currently trades near $1,177.
Despite this advantage, Zcash's total mining activity has increased by more than 2.5x year-to-date, while Bitcoin miners collectively earn around $35 million in daily rewards compared to approximately $2 million for Zcash. Grayscale notes that these figures measure revenue rather than net profit and depend on electricity costs, hardware prices, cooling, and maintenance.
The analysis points to a self-reinforcing dynamic where attractive mining economics draw more computational power, strengthening network security and supporting sustained investor interest.