Investors are balking at ‘excessive’ Bitcoin miner exec pay: VanEck
Bitcoin mining executives’ huge pay packages are weakly aligned with shareholder interests, according to new research from VanEck.
Listen
4:07
2211
Investors are balking at ‘excessive’ Bitcoin miner exec pay: VanEck
News
COINTELEGRAPH IN YOUR SOCIAL FEED
Subscribe on
Follow our
US Bitcoin mining executives are earning well above their peers in the IT and energy sectors due to generous stock compensation packages, and shareholders are fighting back, according to new findings from asset manager VanEck.
Despite “aggressive compensation packages,” Bitcoin mining firm shareholders are “balking,” VanEck head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel and investment analyst Nathan Frankovitz reported on Thursday.
The researchers found that average shareholder approval for executive pay packages is just 64% compared to around 90% for S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies.
“That skepticism appears well-founded. Mining executives continue to grant themselves oversized equity awards that dilute shareholders without reliably linking pay to long-term value creation,” they added.
The researchers reviewed executive compensation across eight US-listed Bitcoin miners: Bit Digital, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf.
The researchers also found that while Bitcoin miner executives earned an average of $6.6 million in 2023, this has nearly doubled to $14.4 million in 2024, which far exceeds comparable sectors such as energy and tech.
