Zcash miners are seeing a revenue advantage that keeps getting bigger. The Energy Mag estimates a Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro can generate around $727.30 in gross revenue per megawatt-hour of electricity as of Monday. That is roughly 3.3 times the estimated industry-average HPC yield of $222.73 per MWh.
The same machine also earns about 4.5 times the $162.11 estimated for Bitmain’s latest-generation Antminer S23 Pro bitcoin miner. It brings in more than seven times the $102.67 of an S21 Pro.
How the lead has stretched
Zcash mining had already moved ahead of other workloads before this latest market surge. The real change is how far the gap has widened. In a late June snapshot from The Energy Mag, the Z15 Pro was estimated at $373 per MWh. HPC was around $223, the S23 Pro was $133, and the S21 Pro was $84.
Back then, Zcash mining’s premium over the HPC benchmark was about $150 per MWh. Now it is more than $500. The gap between the Z15 Pro and the S23 Pro has more than doubled, from roughly $240 to $565 per MWh. The Z15 Pro’s estimated revenue has climbed about 95%, while the S23 Pro’s is up only 22% and the HPC figure has stayed nearly flat.
Why ZEC moved so fast
The divergence comes down to Zcash’s own price action. ZEC gained around 70% in seven days and traded as high as roughly $890 over the past week. That is above the peaks from the 2017-18 crypto cycle. Some databases still list anomalous launch-week trades from $3,200 to nearly $6,000 as the official all-time high, but those trades happened when very few coins existed and liquidity was thin. The move to around $890 is a practical record on a more liquid basis.
Bitcoin also climbed more than 20% last week, breaking out of a $62,000 to $67,000 range and moving above $77,000 on Friday. Bitcoin mining revenue improved, but not by the same scale as Zcash.
What is driving the rally
The broader crypto move started after the US Treasury shifted toward expanding purchases of longer-dated government debt. That pushed yields and the dollar lower. Investors rotated into gold and bitcoin on concerns about inflation, federal debt, and the currency’s outlook.
Regulatory news added momentum. President Donald Trump used a White House cryptocurrency conference to push Congress to pass the Clarity Act. Regulators also outlined additional steps that could ease rules for digital-asset businesses.
The early advance then became a short squeeze. More than $4 billion of bearish crypto positions had been liquidated by Friday, according to Coinglass data cited by the Associated Press. Traders closing those bets had to buy back digital assets, which pushed prices higher.
The next test is data and the Fed. July PCE data, revised second-quarter GDP, and durable-goods orders come Wednesday. Weekly jobless claims follow Thursday. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh speaks at Jackson Hole on Friday. A hawkish tone on inflation could lift Treasury yields and the dollar, possibly reversing part of the liquidity-driven rally. A softer message might encourage more demand for risk assets and alternatives.
