Will the Bitcoin mining industry collapse?

Bitcoin mining requires a delicate balance between many moving parts. Miners already have to face capital and operational costs, unexpected repairs, delays in product shipment, and unexpected regulations that can vary from country to country - and in the case of the United States, from state to state. On top of that, they also had to contend with Bitcoin's sudden drop from $69,000 to $17,600.

Despite the BTC price being 65% lower than its all-time high, the general consensus among miners is to keep calm and just keep stacking sells, but that doesn't mean the market has reached a bottom yet. At a special panel of Bitcoin miners organized by Cointelegraph, Luxor CEO Nick Hansen said: "There's definitely going to be a capital crunch, even in publicly traded companies, or at least just publicly traded companies. There's probably $4 billion worth of new ASICs that need to be paid for as they come out, and that capital is no longer available." Hansen continued: "Hedge funds are exploding very quickly. I think it will take 3 to 6 months for the miners to blow up. So we'll see who has good operations and who can survive in this low-margin environment." When asked about future challenges and prospects for the Bitcoin mining sector, Magdalena Gronowska, consultant at PRTI Inc: "One of the biggest challenges we've faced in transitioning to a low carbon economy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been the underinvestment in technology and infrastructure by the public and private sector. What I think is really amazing about bitcoin mining is that it really offers a completely new way to finance or subsidize the development of energy or waste management infrastructure. It's a way beyond the traditional taxpayer or utility bill payer route because it's based on a completely elegant system of economic incentives."   Source: cointelegraph.com