Over the past few weeks, Zcash has been difficult to ignore. Its price climbed to roughly $979 on Thursday, rising almost 17% in one day. The two-week gain is around 64.7%, while the 30-day chart shows an 88.1% increase against the dollar. Look back six months, and ZEC has gained about 353%. That price action has pulled a lot of attention back to mining.
Hashrate follows price
The Zcash network operates on Equihash, a proof-of-work algorithm where miners measure work in solutions per second. GSol/s stands for gigasolutions per second. Coinwarz data showed the network hashrate peaked on Aug. 28 at 27.9 GSol/s. As of Sept. 3, the network is running at around 91% of that high. That is not a coincidence. Higher ZEC prices make mining more profitable, and more profitable mining usually brings in more machines.
Hashrate tends to follow price in both directions. When the token price drops, some miners unplug and the network adjusts. For now, the economics are clearly in favor of mining.
The ASIC profit leader
Data from Thursday suggests the most profitable ASIC miner right now is Bitmain’s Antminer Z15 Pro. It produces about 840 KSol/s. The older Z15 produces around 420 KSol/s. At current ZEC prices, the Z15 Pro is estimated to earn roughly $59.09 per day. The older Z15 earns around $29.25 per day and sits as the fourth most profitable machine.
There is a catch. Bitmain’s shop shows the Z15 Pro as sold out. The older Z15 is also unavailable. Some resellers are offering the Z15 Pro for a premium above Bitmain’s $4,999 list price. Even the mid-range Z15K, which produces 525 KSol/s and earns around $35.14 per day, cannot be bought directly from Bitmain.
Privacy coins are having a moment. The third most profitable ASIC mines Monero, another privacy token that has also seen significant price gains. This is not necessarily about privacy ideology. What is happening with ZEC and XMR mining comes down to basic return on investment.
What could change
The current situation is profitable, but it may not last. Mining hashpower can arrive fast, and it can leave just as fast if Zcash’s price drops. A sharp correction would push some miners out of the market and reduce the hashrate. That is the normal cycle in proof-of-work mining. For now, Zcash miners are enjoying a strong and profitable window.
