Bitcoin is expensive — whether you buy it from a broker or mine it yourself. But it’s a lot more expensive to mine in some countries than others.
Elite Fixtures has compiled a list of mining costs throughout the world, using averaged data from three mining rigs and average electricity rates in 115 countries as of January 2018. And, based on those results, you absolutely do not want to launch a mining operation in South Korea,
It costs $26,170 to mine a single Bitcoin in that country — more than twice the current cost of buying one. Niue (an island country in the South Pacific, if you didn’t know) was the second most expensive, coming in at $17,566.
The U.S. was a little more than midway down the list, with the average cost coming in at $4,758. (If you really want to cut costs, do your U.S. mining in Louisiana, where the average cost for one coin is $3,224.)
And Venezuela is the cheapest place on earth to do your mining, with an average cost of $531, as energy rates are subsidized by the government there.
So what areas should Bitcoin miners avoid and where should they consider setting up operations? Here’s what it costs in the most and least expensive countries.
Most expensive countries to mine Bitcoin
- South Korea — $26,170
- Niue — $17,566
- Bahrain — $16,773
- Solomon Island — $16,209
- Cook Islands — $15,861
Least expensive countries to mine Bitcoin
- Venezuela — $531
- Trinidad and Tobago — $1,190
- Uzbekistan — $1,788
- Ukraine — $1,852
- Myanmar — $1,983
