I Mined Bitcoin for 3.5 Years (Here's What I Made)

So I've been mining Bitcoin for 3.5 years now, and with BTC sitting around $78,000 (way down from that $126,000 all-time high a few months back), I figured it was time for an update of my results. Am I still making money? Is this whole thing still worth it? Let's get into it.

It's Harder Than It Used To Be (But That Might Actually Be Good News)

Here's the thing most people don't realize: Bitcoin mining gets harder over time. When I first started, I was running half the machines I have now and pulling in 0.22 BTC a month. Fast forward to today? With double the equipment, I'm earning 0.063 BTC a month. Yeah, you read that right.

That's because mining difficulty keeps climbing as more people throw machines online. Every single miner is fighting for a smaller slice of the same 450 BTC that gets created each day.

But here's where it gets interesting. When prices dip and people get scared, miners start turning off their machines. And for the first time in a long while, difficulty actually dropped 17% from where it was just a couple of months ago. That means I'm suddenly earning 17% more BTC with the exact same setup. I'll take that.

What Am I Actually Running?

I've got 27 machines putting out 4.7 petahash, and they're all hosted at a facility in Arkansas through a company called Musk Miners. I don’t want all this running at my house. The heat, the noise, the power bill, etc… no thanks. Plus I couldn’t run it all at home if I wanted. The electricity I pay for with Musk Miners is half what I pay at home.

Plus, hosting is 100% passive. I just pay my hosting bill (electricity) each month. They do everything else. They handle the setup, operation, maintenance, and repairs. Honestly, I spend like five minutes a month on this. I stack BTC passively the rest of the time.

So How Much Am I Actually Making?

Right now, I'm pulling in about $4,921 worth of Bitcoin every month. After my $3,785 hosting bill, that's $1,135 a month in profit. But here's the thing, I never touch the mined Bitcoin to pay for any of that. I cover hosting costs out of pocket and stack every single satoshi.

Over 3.5 years, that's added up to 3.866 BTC in my wallet. At today's price, that's about $302,000. At the recent all-time high, it was closer to $487,000. And if Bitcoin hits $150-200K like a lot of people are predicting this year? We're talking $580K to $773K. Not bad for something I barely have to think about.

The Question Everyone Asks: Wouldn't Buying Have Been Better?

This is the number 1 question I get asked. And honestly? If I'd just taken every dollar I spent on machines and electricity and bought Bitcoin directly, I'd probably have somewhere around 4.0-4.2 BTC right now instead of 3.866. So on paper, buying wins... so far.

But this year could change that, and here's why. Two things tend to go absolutely crazy during bull runs: transaction fees and machine prices. When everyone's scrambling to move BTC around at all-time highs, the fees miners collect can double, triple, even 10x.

And when mining looks insanely profitable, people pay through the nose for machines… meaning you could flip your equipment for what you paid or even more. I've seen both of these happen before, and if they hit again? The math could flip in mining's favor real fast.

What's the Plan for the Rest of 2026?

I'm adding more hydro-cooled units. They're way more efficient and last longer. I'm also getting more Dogecoin mining units (I'll do a whole separate video on that one, but the short version is I think Doge is about to have a big year). And I'm doubling down on crypto staking inside tax-advantaged retirement accounts, where the rewards grow completely tax-free. Pretty sweet setup. I use iTrustCapital for that.

So... Is Mining Worth It or Not?

Honestly, it depends on what you're after. Buying Bitcoin is the “safe” play. You know exactly what you're getting. Mining is more of a calculated bet, but it comes with some seriously underrated perks: huge tax breaks, automatic dollar-cost averaging into BTC around the clock, and the potential upside from fees and resale value.

Me? I do both. I've actually bought way more Bitcoin than I've mined, but I'm not giving up on mining either. It hedges my strategy in a way that just buying can't. We won't really know if the mining experiment beats buying until this bull cycle plays out, but honestly, that's part of the fun.

I go into WAY more detail about all of this in my most recent video that you can watch here:

P.S. I post mining updates and passive income stuff way more often over on X. Drop a follow if you want to keep up with how this all plays out.