Bitcoin miners' cost figures differ in scope, and lenders are taking note

what happened

Pierre Corbin, founder of the bitcoin miner reporting platform Flash, writes in an op-ed for TheEnergyMag that three public miners, MARA, CleanSpark and Riot, reported electricity cost per bitcoin of $38,690, $44,317 and $46,313 for April through June 2026. In his view, these numbers should not be read as a ranking, because each company decides for itself what its measure includes.

MARA's figure covers only its owned and operated sites, while third-party hosting costs of $69.2 million appear separately. CleanSpark's number reflects energy at its owned facilities. Riot's figure comes before curtailment credits earned under Texas grid demand-response programs, which totaled $6,335 per bitcoin. Adding depreciation changes the picture: Riot's cost to mine is $49,912 per bitcoin without miner depreciation and $90,631 with it.

Corbin argues that public companies disclose their methods in footnotes, so an analyst can recalculate their figures. Private miners often have records but lack a traceable link between wallet payouts and reported site results, which makes lenders wary. CleanSpark carried $1.78 billion of debt, mostly convertible notes due in 2030 and 2032.

why it matters

A miner's economics depend on three main factors: the bitcoin price, the cost of electricity and the useful life of its equipment. The higher energy's share of costs and the wider the differences in methods, the harder it is to compare companies and judge their resilience when the BTC price moves. For investors, transparency matters most, since a figure that can be rebuilt from disclosed data is more reliable than a headline number without explanation.

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instruments