What is a Bitcoin mining farm?
Definition · Mining farm
A site where many Bitcoin mining machines run together, sharing power, cooling, networking and staff, and operated as a business.
Picture one home miner, multiplied until the problems change. At home you worry about a circuit, the noise and your tariff. At farm scale it’s grid connections, transformers, industrial cooling, power contracts, permits and neighbours. The machines are the same ASICs, often the liquid-cooled versions built for dense racks. Compare current models in the hardware table.
How big are Bitcoin mining farms?
Miners talk about size in megawatts, because power is the scarce thing, not floor space.
So what does one megawatt of modern machines add up to? Fill it with liquid-cooled Antminer S21 XP Hyd units (473 TH/s and 5,676 W each, manufacturer-rated) and it’s expected to mine about 0.04233054BTC a day at today’s network hashrate (live estimate, before pool fees).
176
Machines per MW
83 PH/s
Hashrate per MW
manufacturer-rated
0.0093%
Share of the network
of 891 EH/s, live
$3,457
Gross per day
live estimate, USD
What is mining hosting, and what does the fee cover?
Most people who buy an industrial miner don’t run it at home. They send it to a hosting site: a farm that rents out rack space and power. You own the machine and choose the pool. The host keeps it cool, online and powered, and bills you, usually at an all-in rate per kWh.
Usually in the rate
- ElectricityThe biggest part of the rate by far.
- Cooling and spaceRack or container space, airflow or liquid loops.
- Network and securityInternet, monitoring, cameras and site access.
- Basic hands-on careReboots and simple checks by on-site staff.
Usually on top
- Repairs and partsFans, power supplies and hashboards, often billed per job.
- Pool feesPaid to your pool, not the host.
- DowntimeCurtailment, outages and maintenance. The machine earns nothing while it’s off.
- Set-up and depositsShipping, import duty, install fees and prepaid months are common.
Because the hosting rate is mostly power, the maths is the same as at home. A machine covers its hosting bill only while hashprice is above its energy use times the rate. Here’s the highest all-in rate each machine could cover today, before pool fees and downtime:
Highest hosting rate each machine could cover today
Where are mining farms built, and why?
80%+
Power price
Electricity is over 80% of miners’ cash running costs (Cambridge). A cent per kWh decides which machines can run at all.
Grid
Connection and ready sites
You need transformers sized for many megawatts. Surveyed firms said a lack of ready-to-use sites held them back more than power supply did.
Cool air
Climate
Cool, dry air means cheaper cooling and less wear. Hot or humid places push farms toward liquid cooling.
Top worry
Stable rules
Miners rank regulatory uncertainty next to energy prices as their biggest concerns. China’s 2021 ban pushed a huge share of hashrate abroad.
Off switch
Flexibility deals
Some grids pay large users to switch off at peak times. A farm can do that in seconds.
Heat
Somewhere to send it
A few sites sell their waste heat to greenhouses or district heating, which suits cold countries like Finland.
Many operators spread out over several sites and countries. In Cambridge’s survey that was the most common way to manage risk.
How do mining farms keep thousands of machines cool?
A 1 MW hall is also a 1 MW heater. Cooling efficiency is measured as PUE: total site power divided by the power the machines use. A PUE of 1.0 would mean zero overhead.
Cheapest
Air
Rows of miners pull outside air through a cool aisle and blow it into a hot aisle. Low cost, but loud and sensitive to dust and humidity.
PUE 1.017
Hydro
Coolant loops through each miner and out to cooling towers. Bitmain rates its HW5 container at PUE 1.017 at 25 °C and 70 dBA at 15 m.
Quiet
Immersion
Machines sit in tanks of non-conductive fluid. Cambridge notes miners use liquid and immersion cooling to cut noise near homes.
Liquid cooling also makes the heat easier to reuse, since warm water travels better than warm air. How the three compare on a single machine is in the machine guide, and heating a house with one is in mining at home.
What energy do mining farms use?
The best first-hand data is Cambridge’s 2025 industry report: a survey of 49 mining companies, run from June to September 2024, covering about 48% of the network’s hashrate. For the network’s total use over time, see the energy guide.
Where surveyed miners got their electricity
- Natural gas 38.2% · fossil
- Coal and oil 9.4% · fossil
- Hydro 23.4% · sustainable
- Wind 15.4% · sustainable
- Nuclear 9.8% · sustainable
- Solar and other 3.7% · sustainable
A farm can drop megawatts in seconds and start again later, losing nothing but revenue. That makes it useful for demand response: switching off when the grid is short. Surveyed miners reported 888 GWh of load switched off in 2023. Critics point out the load is there the rest of the time, and a lot of it still runs on fossil fuel. Both are true, and which matters more depends on the grid.
Where in the world is Bitcoin mined?
Nobody can see every miner, so every map is an estimate. Cambridge has two, measured in different ways:
Mining map, January 2022
Industry survey, June 2024
The direction is clear even if the exact numbers aren’t. After China banned mining in 2021, the US became the biggest hub, while mining carried on in China and elsewhere. Treat any single percentage as rough.
How does a mining farm make money?
Revenue is hashprice, what 1 TH/s earns in a day, times the farm’s hashrate. Costs are the upfront spend on machines, containers and the grid connection, plus running costs, which are mostly electricity. Right now 1 TH/s is expected to mine 0.0000005085BTC a day, about $0.0415 (live estimate, updated hourly). Size your own:
Size your own mining farm
Live · estimate9 containers · 1,761 machines · 833 PH/s · 0.094% of the network
BTC per day
0.42354588BTC
Net per day
$23,791
Net per year
$8,683,867
Power per year
88 GWh
Filled with Antminer S21 XP Hyd units (manufacturer-rated), about 1.2 MW per container. Live hashprice, updated hourly, before pool fees, staff, repairs and hardware. The halving switch simply halves revenue, which slightly overstates the drop because fees stay. Not a forecast.
For reference, surveyed miners told Cambridge they paid a median $45 per MWh for electricity and $55.5 all-in. Machines and containers come on top, and lose value as newer models arrive.
What the halving does
Hashprice today vs. right after the next halving
At block 1,050,000 the subsidy drops from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC. Overnight every farm mines close to half as much bitcoin per terahash, and the power bill stays the same. Machines that stop paying get switched off or moved to cheaper power, and difficulty adjusts. More in the halving guide.
What are the real risks of industrial mining?
Hashprice falls
More machines join the network all the time, so each terahash mines less bitcoin. A farm that doesn’t upgrade slowly earns less.
The halving
Every four years the subsidy halves overnight, and costs don’t.
Bitcoin’s price
Power is billed in dollars or euros, rewards come in bitcoin. A price drop can turn a good month into a loss.
Rules and grids
Bans, new taxes, noise limits or a power contract that isn’t renewed can close a site.
Your host
With hosting you depend on someone else’s site. Outages, curtailment or a host going bust can leave your machine idle or stuck.
Old hardware
Each new generation pushes older machines towards break-even. Resale prices fall with it.
None of this makes farms a bad business. It makes them a business with thin margins in bad years and a lot of moving parts, run by people who watch every cent per kWh.
Farm, pool or app: what’s the difference?
Farm
Makes the hashrate
Owns or hosts the machines, pays the power bill, and earns block rewards through a pool.
Pool
Combines the hashrate
Coordinates many miners, from home rigs to farms, and splits the blocks it finds, keeping a fee.
App
Lets you mine for free
In CloudMineCrypto the free plan, ads, games, offers and daily check-ins give you plans, and your estimated BTC ticks up while they run. No machine, no power bill, and you withdraw to your own wallet.
Good to know: paid plans are an optional boost and usually mine less than they cost. Rewards in the app are estimates, change with the network and aren’t guaranteed. A plan isn’t ownership of hardware or a share of a pool or farm. Terms apply, see the reward rules. Hardware specs on this page are manufacturer-rated, as of September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Bitcoin mining farm?
A site running hundreds or thousands of mining machines together, with its own power infrastructure, cooling and staff. Farms are measured in megawatts rather than in number of machines.
What is Bitcoin mining hosting?
You own the machine and a hosting company runs it in its facility. You pay a rate, usually per kWh, that covers power, cooling, space, network and basic on-site care. Repairs, pool fees and downtime are often extra, so read the contract.
How much electricity does a Bitcoin mining farm use?
It depends on size. One Bitmain ANTSPACE HW5 container is rated at 1,200 kW for 210 hydro-cooled miners, and big sites combine many of them. The whole network used about 138 TWh a year as of mid-2024, according to Cambridge.
Which country has the most Bitcoin mining?
The United States, in both of Cambridge’s datasets: 37.84% of hashrate on its mining map for January 2022, and 75.4% of the hashrate reported in its 2024 industry survey, whose respondents were mostly US-based.
Do Bitcoin mining farms use renewable energy?
Partly. Firms in Cambridge’s 2024 survey reported 52.4% sustainable electricity, including 23.4% hydro, 15.4% wind and 9.8% nuclear. Natural gas was the largest single source at 38.2%.
What happens to mining farms at the halving?
Their bitcoin income per terahash roughly halves overnight, because the block subsidy drops from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC. Farms with expensive power or older machines switch some of them off, and difficulty then adjusts.
Does a CloudMineCrypto plan mean I own part of a farm?
No, and you don’t need to: you mine for free with the free plan, ads, games, offers and daily check-ins, and paid plans are an optional boost that usually mine less than they cost. A plan doesn’t give you ownership of, or a dedicated share in, any specific hardware or pool. The app works out your estimated rewards from the plan’s hashrate and live network data.
Sources and further reading
- Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report: Global Operations, Sentiment, and Energy Use (April 2025) · Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance
- Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) · Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance
- Bitcoin mining map: methodology · Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance
- Bitcoin mining: new data reveal a surprising resurgence (mining map, Sept 2021 to Jan 2022) · Cambridge Judge Business School
- ANTSPACE HW5 hydro-cooling container specifications · Bitmain (manufacturer)
- Controlled supply (halving schedule) · Bitcoin Wiki
- Mining dashboard: hashrate, difficulty, pools · mempool.space
Live figures on this page come from the CloudMineCrypto API or from the public blockchain data services named next to them, refresh on a schedule, and are labelled where they appear. This guide is educational and not financial advice. CloudMineCrypto is not an investment product; rewards in the app are estimates and aren’t guaranteed.
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