Too many Ethereum miners are migrating to rival currencies, hurting mining profitability following the Merge.
Ethereum, the world's second-largest blockchain network, switched to proof-of-stake on Thursday to enhance efficiency and reduce energy use. The Merge meant miners were
no longer required to safeguard the network, thus rig owners transferred their computers to other PoW blockchains.
"GPU mining is dead less than 24 hours after the Merge," tweeted Bitfarms' Ben Gagnon (BITF). The three main GPU networks have poor earnings, and "the few profitable coins
have little market size or liquidity," he said.
Hashrate, or computer power, needed to mine PoW cryptocurrencies increased following the Merge.
Luxor Technologies COO Ethan Vera tweeted Thursday that too many ETH miners migrated to ETC. Even operating fresh hardware at sub-3 cent power isn't profitable on ETC