‘BTC will have to hit $79K’: At-home miners brace for the Bitcoin halving

Using ASIC warmth for home heating can make mining worth the cost, some say

article-image

Artwork by Crystal Le

share

The per-block rewards paid to bitcoin miners are set to be cut in half, from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, later this month. The network’s fourth halving event presents a headache for even the best-resourced mining firms, but it could make thin margins even thinner for those running mining setups at home.

For miners, the formula is simple: If the halving drives up bitcoin’s price, their investment pays off. Otherwise, small miners could be left with dormant ASICs, energy bills and little chance of breaking even. 

Read more: How the halving could impact bitcoin’s price

Some at-home miners laid out the stakes in the r/BitcoinMining subreddit.

“I personally need it at 70k for my operation to break even after halving,” one poster wrote. Another said BTC would need to reach $79,000 to break even, and $140,000 to recapture their current profit margin.

Mining isn’t really worth it these days and especially after the halving,” they wrote.

There are other complicating factors besides price for DIY miners. One variable is Bitcoin’s hash rate, which has grown at an increasing rate throughout the network’s history. The hash rate is essentially a measure of the amount of competition to mine Bitcoin blocks. Elevated electricity prices where miners live can make things more difficult, particularly as power grids in the US and elsewhere buckle under demand for compute-intensive AI. 

Read more: 20% of bitcoin network hash rate could go offline after halving: Galaxy

Individual miners have very low odds of successfully mining bitcoin by themselves. Many opt to join mining pools which coordinate and share rewards among several miners, while also charging varying fees. This is all besides the fact that the prices of miners vary, and more-efficient ASICs are released over time.

At-home miners can punch these variables into online mining calculators to try measuring their chances of profit, but some have given up hope altogether. Several forum posters have encouraged prospective miners to gradually purchase bitcoin over time instead, a process known as dollar cost averaging. 

Two miners told Blockworks that using mining rigs for home heating was one avenue for making at-home mining profitable. ASIC miners emit heat as they run, and some Bitcoiners have developed means of capturing this heat and circulating it through their homes.

Read more: Why most bitcoin mining stocks are down amid a persistent crypto rally

“It makes one so much less price sensitive when you can mine AND eliminate a natural gas bill,” Canada-based at-home miner Antoine Desjardins, who produces heat from bitcoin mining, said in a direct message. 

Ndgo, a pseudonymous miner who has published calculations on at-home mining profitability to their X page, told Blockworks that miners need to make use of ASIC heat for at-home mining to make sense in the long run. 

But those already in the mining game likely won’t be deterred by the halving, ndgo added. 

“People have been planning for the halving, some since the last halving, many since last summer, [a] few since October-ish,” ndgo wrote. “Everybody knows it’s coming. Should be fine.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Sam Altman sees our future through the World Orb

article-image

Few US politicians are this clearheaded about Bitcoin

article-image

Pump.fun seemed to kick off buybacks on Tuesday according to onchain analysis

article-image

Stablecoins are a new form of money, with an old kind of limit

article-image

Firedancer has yet to go fully live, but its progress has been “pretty impressive,” a dev said

article-image

House lawmakers support, criticize the GENIUS Act, CLARITY Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act in Monday hearing