Bitcoin mining faces record competition as individual miners and hobbyists return to the scene using new mining strategies.
Thirteen years ago, Bitcoin experienced its first halving event, reducing the miner's block reward from 50 original Bitcoins to 25 Bitcoins.
Now, after Bitcoin (BTC) has completed four halving events and block rewards have dropped to just 3.125 Bitcoins, the mining industry continues to evolve, with industrial miners merging and diversifying into the fields of artificial intelligence.
At the same time, a specialized trend for individual mining is emerging, according to analysts at Bitfinex who spoke to Cointelegraph.
The analysts said: "Despite the new surge in industrial Bitcoin mining, we would like to emphasize the new wave of individual miners and how amateur miners are returning to the market, thanks to improvements in mining pools, efficiency gains, and specialized strategies."
Bitcoin mining in 2024 vs. 2025: Increasing competition with dwindling production
Since last year, the Bitcoin mining market has grown significantly in size, complexity, and competitiveness, surpassing a global hashrate level of "one zettahash per second" (ZH/s) in August, according to CoinWarz data.
Bitfinex analysts said: "This reflects both increased investment and the deployment of super-efficient mining devices like the Antminer S21 series." They added: "In short, the Bitcoin mining market in 2025 has become more industrialized, technologically advanced, and geographically distributed than it was in 2024, but it is also more competitive and volatile."
Despite increasing competition, mining output has declined over the past year. The circulating supply of Bitcoin added approximately 155,000 Bitcoin between November 27, 2024, and November 27, 2025, down 37% from 245,000 Bitcoin in the previous year, according to Blockchain.com.
Christian Sepsar, the CEO of marketing at Braiins Bitcoin mining technology, stated to Cointelegraph, adding that miners were deploying devices at a record pace: "2024 has already been a tough year for miners."
However, even with rising Bitcoin prices, revenues continued to decline as the hash price — or revenues earned by miners per unit of hash power — fell amid increasing competition in mining, Sepsar added.
Sepsar said: "2024 was tough. Today is worse. Miners find themselves in the most competitive environment the industry has ever seen, and no one knows how long this will last."
The return of individual and amateur mining to the market
Despite rising industrial competition and increasing costs, individual miners have not disappeared. Instead, they are returning to market entry, supported by various improvements in mining pool technology, according to Bitfinex analysts.
The analysts said: "Tools like CKPool — a user-friendly platform for individual mining known for its low latency — have helped make this practice more accessible." The company also noted a social trend that has spread for "lottery wins" by individual miners, especially those using efficient and low-noise mining devices at home.
Bitfinex analysts stated that "amateur mining — not entirely individual but not industrial either — has seen a mini-resurgence." This trend has been driven by the availability of efficient and low-cost ASICs, using off-peak electricity strategies, heat recycling methods, and firmware like BraiinsOS, which allows miners to reduce the speed of their devices for optimal efficiency.
The analysts said: "It is unlikely that these groups will be able to dominate the hashrate in a capitulation scenario, as we are talking about ordinary users with limited available hash rates."
Finally, Bitfinex stated that in the event of a significant capitulation from the largest miners, medium-sized industrial operations will become the new key players, while individual and amateur miners will remain far behind in terms of capacity.
"It's an interesting pattern, but it's far from competing with larger, more industrial operators."
