Commoditizing hashrate: the next financial frontier in Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin (BTC) mining has evolved from garage rigs and warehouse farms to an institutional-scale industry, predicted to generate over $20 billion in revenue by 2025. However, most investors still view mining through an old lens. They buy ASICs to deal with the headache or bet on volatile mining stocks.

The market is developing cleaner exposures, i.e. tradable hashrate. Instead of managing the hardware, investors can now buy tokens representing computing power, collect mining rewards, and have professional operators handle the machines behind the scenes.

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Tokenization is just the first step

The initial infrastructure is taking shape and real money is starting to flow in.

At a basic level, mining companies tokenize their computing power into tradable units. Each token represents a certain amount of hashrate (for example, 1 TH/s). Token holders receive a pro-rata share of mining rewards. The mining company will be responsible for the hardware, electrical and maintenance. Investors simply collect Bitcoins. For retail, tokenized hashrate lowers the barrier to entry. No hardware, hosting or energy contracts are required, just exposure through tradable tokens or listed products.

Platforms like Luxor are also introducing hashrate derivatives and futures contracts, which miners use to hedge production and sophisticated investors can trade exposure through regulated markets. As of August 2025, Luxor’s OTC hashrate forwards had traded close to $200 million in nominal terms year-to-date. Since these contracts hedge the revenue side of mining (hash prices) rather than input costs such as electricity, many operators combine them with traditional power hedging or PPAs to balance both sides of the equation. Together with tokenized mining, these instruments expand the financial toolkit that could mature into a full-fledged commodity market for hashrate.

Bitcoin’s 7D SMA hashrate recently peaked at 1.15 zettahashes per second on October 18, 2025. That vast amount of computing power is now being sliced ​​up and sold to investors who never touch the mining equipment.

Mining pools, which once served only industrial operators, issue tokens backed by collective hashrate. The industry is moving from selling mined Bitcoin to selling the ability to mine it.

Mining is becoming Wall Street’s next commodity strategy

Miners face the same problem that prompted oil producers to create futures markets a century ago. Revenues fluctuate wildly based on price, operating costs only go up, and competition suddenly appears and changes everything. Just as Exxon learned to sell next year’s oil production now to lock in a predictable price, Bitcoin miners are now selling future hashrate to help miners secure a more predictable revenue stream and banks to model cash flow to make it easier for investors to understand. This model has worked for decades in energy and agriculture, where futures contracts protect producers from price fluctuations.

Even if the network difficulty spikes by 20% in a month, miners who have hedged their hashrate through futures contracts will keep their margins intact. All that remains is to take whatever the market gives you. So what does hashrate forwarding actually hedge? In reality, the underlying thing is computational power (e.g. TH/s). Payments are indexed to Bitcoin block rewards and transaction fees, and network difficulty is adjusted. Key risks include basis risk (volatility of difficulty or fees), operational uptime, and counterparty performance. Unlike BTC spot exposure, hashrate forward directly reflects the economics of mining capacity.

Financial institutions are exploring ways to adapt commodity market tools to hashrate. Some platforms now offer forward contracts for computing power. Some companies are developing ways to hedge against difficulties. Regional indexes primarily exist as a concept, waiting for market depth to support actual derivatives trading.

Full financialization of hashrate will redefine who can participate in mining. Today’s futures and swaps serve institutional traders. Tomorrow’s tokenized products will allow everyone from individual investors and crypto enthusiasts to institutional investors to access mining rewards without any operational complexity.

Building blocks are falling into place

All financial innovations follow the same pattern. First comes basic trading, then derivatives, then structured products, and finally mass market adoption. Mining is rapidly passing through these stages.

It started with some bold moves by financial institutions to add Bitcoin to their balance sheets. Today, it’s no longer just a trend, it’s here to stay, with institutional investors owning over 10% of the total supply. Blockchain data clearly shows this shift, with publicly traded companies and ETFs absorbing Bitcoin at a pace the market has never seen before.

When Marathon and Riot went public, they gave retail investors the first chance at mining exposure without purchasing hardware. However, mining stocks involved corporate risk and stock price fluctuations, and offered only indirect exposure to the underlying business.

Now, tokenized hashrate takes this even further. These products attract investors looking to mine directly without going through a corporate layer. Some banks, like Signum, accept computing power as collateral for lines of credit, letting miners borrow future hashrate in exchange for selling their Bitcoin reserves. The same transformation that took decades for commodities will happen to hashrate in 24 months.

Miners need these tools as profit margins tighten and competition increases. Investors want exposure to Bitcoin beyond the volatile spot price. Hashrate products solve both problems at the same time. This explains why adoption is rapidly increasing, outpacing many other emerging cryptocurrency derivatives categories.

Infrastructure is scaling up. A system that was just an idea a few years ago now carries hundreds of millions of communications. If this pattern holds true, retail products could follow in the footsteps of ETFs, allowing hashrate to reach retail investors. The underlying mechanism is simple. Investors do not need to manage machines or self-custodial BTC. They can participate in mining rewards through structured and professionally managed products.

Within five years, hashrate will be traded like any other commodity. Rather than just firing up the Bloomberg terminal and seeing only oil and copper futures, traders could also see BTC hashrate contracts listed alongside them. Portfolio managers will treat computing power as just another allocation, and major exchanges such as CME may eventually list standardized contracts like other products.

Miners can finally run their businesses with predictable margins. They can sell their hashrate production up to three years into the future and know exactly what they will get, regardless of where Bitcoin trades. Mining turns into a predictable spread business. Understand your power costs, lock in your hashrate price, and pocket the difference.

The products available range from very simple to complex for derivatives traders. Anyone can purchase and publish basic hashrate tokens. Quants, on the other hand, will trade difficulty swaps and arbitrage regional indexes. Banks will issue structured notes backed by computational power, and pension funds without direct exposure to Bitcoin will still be able to buy hashrate ETPs.

No longer a hypothesis, the financialization of hashrate is underway, and those who recognize computing as both a resource and an asset class will have an advantage.

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