Bitcoin mining hardware: 13 years from 2.5 W to 7 J/TH
When ASICMiner shipped the first Block Erupter USB in mid-2013, it pumped out 336 MH/s for 2.5 watts — about 7,440,000 J/TH. Today's Bitmain Antminer S21e XP Hyd 3U lands the same work for roughly 7 J/TH. Across 13 years, SHA-256 mining hardware got ~1,063,000× more efficient. This is the timeline of every device that mattered.
Efficiency (J/TH, log scale)
Lower is better. Each point is a device's spec at launch.
Per-device hashrate (TH/s, log scale)
Higher is better. Same axis as efficiency for direct comparison.
Unknown era
1 devices shipped in this period.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
ZTEX ZTEX 1.15y (Quad-Spartan-6)
Nov 2011
|
31,214 J/TH |
USB & first-gen ASIC (2013)
The first sold-to-public ASICs landed in 2013. ASICMiner's Block Erupter USB pumped 336 MH/s for 2.5 W — orders of magnitude better than the GPUs it replaced, but ridiculously inefficient by today's standards. Avalon, Butterfly Labs, and KnCMiner shipped the first standalone units, with KnC's Jupiter at 550 GH/s setting an early ceiling. Capex was brutal (BFL Single SC: $1,300 for 60 GH/s) and waiting times stretched into months as fabs prioritized larger orders.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
KnCMiner KnC Jupiter
Oct 2013
|
2,727 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S1
Dec 2013
|
2,000 J/TH |
View all 12 devices in this era →
| Released | Device | J/TH |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2013 | Avalon Avalon 1 (Batch 1) | 9,394 |
| Jan 2013 | ZTEX ZTEX 2.16 | 21,875 |
| Jun 2013 | ASICMiner Block Erupter USB | 5,952 |
| Aug 2013 | Butterfly Labs BFL Single SC | 10,000 |
| Aug 2013 | Butterfly Labs BFL Jalapeno | 6,000 |
| Sep 2013 | ASICMiner Block Erupter Cube | 3,000 |
| Oct 2013 | KnCMiner KnC Mercury | 9,200 |
| Oct 2013 | KnCMiner KnC Jupiter | 2,727 |
| Oct 2013 | KnCMiner KnC Saturn | 4,000 |
| Dec 2013 | Avalon Avalon 2 | 2,500 |
| Dec 2013 | Bitmain Antminer S1 | 2,000 |
| Dec 2013 | HashFast HashFast Baby Jet | 2,000 |
Second-gen ASIC (2014)
2014 was the year hashrate density jumped 10× while many of the early brands collapsed. KnC Neptune crossed 3 TH/s on a single chassis. Bitmain's Antminer S2/S3 began the lineage that still runs today. Spondoolies and HashFast launched, then unraveled — HashFast filed for bankruptcy mid-year, Butterfly Labs faced FTC action over delivery delays. The market began consolidating around the manufacturers who controlled their own chip design.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
KnCMiner KnC Neptune
Mar 2014
|
700 J/TH |
|
Butterfly Labs BFL Monarch
Sep 2014
|
500 J/TH |
View all 14 devices in this era →
| Released | Device | J/TH |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2014 | BPMC Bi*Fury USB Stick | 1,200 |
| Feb 2014 | BPMC Red Fury USB | 1,569 |
| Mar 2014 | KnCMiner KnC Neptune | 700 |
| Apr 2014 | HashFast HashFast Sierra | 1,000 |
| Apr 2014 | Spondoolies Spondoolies SP10 Dawson | 929 |
| Apr 2014 | Bitmain Antminer S2 | 1,000 |
| Jun 2014 | Avalon Avalon 3 | 2,000 |
| Jul 2014 | Bitmain Antminer S3 | 841 |
| Sep 2014 | Spondoolies Spondoolies SP20 Jackson | 647 |
| Sep 2014 | Butterfly Labs BFL Monarch | 500 |
| Nov 2014 | Bitfury Bitfury BF-756C55 | 559 |
| Dec 2014 | Bitmain S4 | 700 |
| Dec 2014 | Bitmain Antminer S4 | 700 |
| Dec 2014 | Bitmain Antminer S5 | 511 |
S-series climb (2015-2016)
Bitmain's Antminer S5/S7/S9 dynasty began here. The S9, released in mid-2016 at 13.5 TH/s and ~100 J/TH, was the workhorse miner for the next 4-5 years. Spondoolies SP-series held the high-watt high-hashrate niche. The shift from 28nm to 16nm process nodes drove the efficiency leap.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
Bitmain Antminer S7
Sep 2015
|
277 J/TH |
|
Spondoolies Spondoolies SP35 Yukon
Oct 2015
|
545 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S7-LN
Jun 2016
|
258 J/TH |
View all 4 devices in this era →
| Released | Device | J/TH |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2015 | Spondoolies Spondoolies SP30 Yukon | 360 |
| Sep 2015 | Bitmain Antminer S7 | 277 |
| Oct 2015 | Spondoolies Spondoolies SP35 Yukon | 545 |
| Jun 2016 | Bitmain Antminer S7-LN | 258 |
S9 dynasty + first 16nm (2017-2019)
The Antminer S9 dominated this era. Bitmain shipped variants (S9, S9i, S9j, S9k) with incremental hashrate bumps while competitors raced to catch up. Innosilicon T2T, Whatsminer M3/M10, Canaan AvalonMiner 741/821/921 — all chasing 30-50 J/TH. By 2019 the S17/S17 Pro pushed below 40 J/TH on 7nm, foreshadowing the next wave.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
Bitfury Bitfury B8
Dec 2017
|
88 J/TH |
|
Bitfury Bitfury Tardis
Jul 2018
|
79 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S15 (28Th)
Dec 2018
|
50 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S17 Pro (50Th)
Apr 2019
|
40 J/TH |
|
Canaan Canaan AvalonMiner 1166 Pro
Dec 2019
|
42 J/TH |
View all 121 devices in this era →
S19 / S21 hyper-efficient (2020-now)
7nm and 5nm process nodes plus immersion cooling rewrote the curve. Antminer S19 (3,250 W / 95 TH/s = 34 J/TH) gave way to S19 XP (21 J/TH) and S21 Pro (15 J/TH). WhatsMiner M30S++/M50/M53/M60/M63 traded blows with Bitmain at every generation. Hydro variants pushed power per chassis past 5 kW. The 2024 halving forced ~30 J/TH machines off the network — anything above that line bleeds money at typical $0.06/kWh.
| Milestone device | Efficiency |
|---|---|
|
Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro Hyd (177Th)
May 2020
|
30 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S19 XP+ Hyd (279Th)
Jan 2021
|
19 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S19 XP Hydro
Jan 2022
|
21 J/TH |
|
MintGreen MintGreen Digital Boiler
Apr 2022
|
24 J/TH |
|
Bitmain S21 Hyd
Jan 2023
|
16 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S21 XP Hyd (500Th)
Feb 2024
|
11 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S21e XP Hyd 3U
Jan 2025
|
7 J/TH |
|
Bitmain Antminer S23 Hyd 3U
Jan 2026
|
10 J/TH |
View all 204 devices in this era →
Three lessons from the curve
- Efficiency moved on a log scale. Linear-scale charts hide the scale of the change. Plotted on a log axis, J/TH dropped roughly 100,000× in the first three years and another 5× in the last seven — a steeper-than-Moore's-law curve driven by both process-node shrinks (110 nm → 5 nm) and architectural specialization.
- Most early manufacturers died. Of the 2013-era brands listed above — ASICMiner, Avalon, Butterfly Labs, KnCMiner, HashFast, Spondoolies — only Avalon (rebranded under Canaan) is still shipping. Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan dominated post-2016 by integrating chip design, manufacturing, and pool operation in-house.
- Hyperscale ASICs forced a price floor on power. When a 17 J/TH machine is the global average, anyone running a 30 J/TH device is paying twice the electricity for the same coin. The chart's bottom edge (best-of-class efficiency) is what every miner is measured against — and what sets the long-term break-even electricity price for older fleets.