Grayscale's latest mining comparison flips the conventional read: a single Zcash rig now earns roughly double the daily rewards of a Bitcoin rig, and four times as much per unit of electricity. The firm's head of research, Zach Pandl, outlined the estimates in a Sept.
11 analysis using the Bitmain Z15 Pro for Zcash and the Bitmain S23 Hydro for Bitcoin, assuming power at $0.05 per kilowatt-hour, full uptime, and zero transaction fees as of Sept. 9.
Per-Machine Economics Favor Zcash
The numbers are striking at the machine level. Grayscale puts Zcash's per-rig reward at roughly twice Bitcoin's, with the energy-efficiency gap widening to 4x when measured per megawatt-hour. An independent Energy Mag analysis republished Aug.
25 estimated the Z15 Pro's gross revenue at $727.30 per MWh against a high-performance computing benchmark of $222.73. Those figures describe revenue under specific assumptions, pool fees, cooling, depreciation, and other operating expenses are excluded, so actual operator profit will be lower.
| Metric | Bitcoin (S23 Hydro) | Zcash (Z15 Pro) | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Daily reward per rig | Baseline | ~2x baseline | Grayscale, Sept. 11 | | Revenue per MWh | Baseline | ~4x baseline | Grayscale, Sept.
11 | | Gross revenue per MWh |, | $727.30 | Energy Mag, Aug. 25 | | HPC benchmark per MWh |, | $222.73 | Energy Mag, Aug. 25 | ZEC traded at $1,123.25 at press time on Sept.
12, up from an intraday high of $979 on Sept. 3. Grayscale links the price strength to a hashrate expansion that has pushed mining activity more than 2.5 times above its January level.
Aggregate Reward Pool Still Favors Bitcoin
The per-machine advantage does not translate to total network economics. Grayscale estimates aggregate Bitcoin miner rewards at approximately $35 million daily, compared with roughly $2 million for Zcash. The difference separates the overall size of each network's reward pool from the estimated earnings of individual machines.
Bitcoin's larger emission schedule and higher token price sustain a far deeper revenue base for its miner cohort.
Hashrate Response and Security Implications
Pandl argued the profitability signal is self-reinforcing: "At current valuations, Zcash mining can be highly profitable. This is encouraging more mining activity which in turn supports network security." The firm suggests higher prices attract more compute, which strengthens the chain, potentially sustaining higher prices.
Whether that loop holds depends on whether ZEC can maintain its current range above $1,000 and whether difficulty adjustments erode per-rig margins as more Z15 Pro units come online.
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