Bitcoin mining enters a brutal elimination round: old mining rigs are shutting down in batches, while liquid-cooled new machines stand out.

[Block Rhythm] Recently, looking at the data from F2Pool, I found that the mining circle is undergoing a brutal reshuffle.

The overall network difficulty has been running at a high level. If we calculate the electricity cost at $0.06 per kWh, many old mining machines can no longer bear it. The Antminer S19, S19j, S19 Pro, as well as the entire S17 series, Avalon A12/A13, and Bitmain M20/M30 series machines have all seen their shutdown prices soar to $90,000 to $100,000 or even higher. What does this mean? It means that if the coin price does not reach this level, turning on the machines will result in losses, and the daily net profit will directly turn negative, making it basically time to consider pulling the plug.

However, the new generation of liquid-cooled mining machines has a completely different style. The shutdown price of the Ant S23 Hyd. is around $32,200, and it is still making steady profits. The shutdown price of models like the S21 XP Hyd. is approximately between $40,000 and $50,000, which has much stronger risk resistance compared to those old air-cooled antiques.

In simple terms, the recent surge in difficulty has completely torn the mining machine market into two worlds—new machines with high efficiency continue to mine, while old models can only watch helplessly as electricity costs consume all profits. Once the technological gap widens, outdated capacity basically has no way out in this environment, and the industry is completing equipment upgrades in the most direct way.