2021 has been a stellar year for crypto, which must also mean it’s been a stellar year for miners. And to a large extent, it was, with miners pocketing USD 3bn in revenues from Bitcoin (BTC) mining in the month of April alone.
But while transaction fees paid to BTC miners increased by over 750% year-on-year in the second quarter of the year, it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to crypto mining in 2021. It also doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to mining in 2022.
Because while industry figures generally agree that miners will continue reaping significant revenues this year, they also report an expectation that competition will heat up in the sector. This will result in more companies — including energy companies — entering the market, as well as more investment in newer mining technologies.
One of the biggest trends of 2021 was that the geographical locus of crypto mining shifted from China – which had long accounted for over two thirds of Bitcoin’s hashrate at one point – to elsewhere in the world. This is going to be a big theme once again in 2022, with two nations, in particular, competing for dominance.
“While both North America and Russia have clear regulations for mining compared with other countries, North America, with better access to capital markets, will continue to account for a majority of the global hashrate. But we believe Russia — with a high surplus hydropower capacity for mining — will emerge as the top international destination for sustainable mining,” said Igor Runets, CEO of BitRiver, a Russia-based colocation service provider for renewables-based crypto mining.
Other figures within the mining sector agree that North America (Canada and the US) and Russia will continue seeing their share of (Bitcoin) mining increase in 2022, even if they differ on which of these two will predominate.