According to the report, Europe is home to nine of the 10 least profitable countries
for Bitcoin mining, based on household electricity costs.
A significant worldwide contrast exists in household electricity expenses for individual Bitcoin
BTC
$26,096
miners. While producing one Bitcoin in Italy costs $208,560, in Lebanon,
it’s roughly 783 times cheaper, according to a recent report.
Published on Aug. 17, the report from CoinGecko revealed that only 65 countries are profitable
for solo Bitcoin miners, based solely on household electricity costs.
Among these, 34 countries are in Asia, while Europe only has five.
However, solo Bitcoin miners find themselves at odds with the worldwide average of household electricity costs:
“The average household electricity cost to mine 1 Bitcoin is $46,291.24,
which is 35% higher than the average daily price of 1 BTC in July 2023 ($30,090.08).“
The report identified Italy as the costliest country for household Bitcoin mining at $208,560 per Bitcoin.
At the time of publication, this suggests the cost of mining one Bitcoin in
Italy is equivalent to the value of approximately eight Bitcoin.
This was followed by Austria at $184,352 and Belgium at $172,382.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s household electricity rates allow individual miners to generate one Bitcoin for
just $266. Based on this data, this is approximately 783 times cheaper
than the cost to mine a Bitcoin in Italy.
Iran followed, with a production cost of $532 per Bitcoin.
However, despite Iran legalizing Bitcoin mining in 2019, the country has
since banned legal operations on several occasions, citing stress on energy grids during winter.
On Jan. 4, Cointelegraph reported that approximately 150,000 pieces of crypto mining
equipment were seized by Iran’s Organization for Collection and Sale of State-Owned Property.
On Aug. 19, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao posted a screenshot of this
report’s data on X (formerly Twitter), questioning his 8.6 million followers why
individuals in these countries with low electricity wouldn’t mine Bitcoin.
However, CZ remained skeptical and believes there might be more factors to consider.
Yet, he suggested it’s worth exploring further:
“The report probably didn’t consider feasibility and other logistics.
But if the data is true, there definitely seems to be some potential opportunities.”
CZ acknowledged an X user who explained that many of these countries
lack sufficient electricity for them to make the most of the cheap electricity costs.
“Most of these countries are facing a shortage of electricity and usually turn
off their heavy industries in the summer or during peak hours,” the X user stated.