Bitcoin mining at home: Does it pay off in Greece?

Mining Bitcoin at home on ordinary residential electricity in Greece barely covers even the power draw of an industrial-grade machine, based on data from November 11, 2026. In our example, expected gross revenue is about €169 over 30 days, while electricity at €0.20/kWh costs €504. There may be exceptions with genuinely cheap surplus energy or by putting the heat to use, but not as a general rule.

How does Bitcoin mining work today?

Mining is a competition of computing power to add blocks of transactions to Bitcoin’s ledger, the blockchain. A successful block earns a subsidy of 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees. The subsidy was cut from 6.25 BTC at the halving in April 2024.

Computing power is measured as hashrate. Mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to keep block production close to the network’s target. A computer or a graphics card can take part, but the competition is mostly run on specialized integrated circuits (ASICs). Your gaming PC won’t suddenly turn into a competitive gold mine.

How much does an Antminer S21 earn in Greece?

At this snapshot, an Antminer S21 brings in about €5.62 a day before any expenses. As an illustration we use Bitmain’s specifications: 200 TH/s, i.e. trillions of hash calculations per second, and a power draw of 3,500 watts. We are not assuming it is the newest or most efficient model available.

IonGrid’s index of gross revenue per unit of hashrate (hashprice) was about $31.53 per PH/s per day at 15:40 UTC on November 11. One PH/s equals 1,000 TH/s. Running nonstop, and using the ECB reference rate of November 10, $1.1214 per euro, you get:

At €0.20/kWh you are about €335 a month short, before buying the hardware, fees, ventilation, repairs and taxes. The break-even point for electricity alone is about €0.067/kWh. Real profit requires a lower cost. As long as the operation loses money, any “payback” calculation is meaningless.

What electricity price should you use?

The right cost is the increase in your entire bill once the machine is added, not just the advertised supply rate. We look at daytime and nighttime rates, tiers, consumption charges, taxes and any discounts you might lose. A fixed charge you already pay is not automatically billed to mining a second time.

Published comparisons need care. To Vima reported on November 2 a rate of €0.13/kWh for PPC’s (DEI) myHome Online and €0.169 for the green G1/G1N tariff, while logariasmo.gr listed €0.1835 for the latter on November 5. Kathimerini reported average charges of about €0.28/kWh on green tariffs. Different terms and different check dates don’t add up to one universal price for everyone.

Why isn’t a rising Bitcoin price enough?

Revenue also depends on competition and transaction fees, not just the price of BTC, which was about $74,400 at the snapshot. On November 9, Hashrate Index recorded a difficulty of 148.36 trillion and a seven-day average hashrate of 979 EH/s, where each EH/s equals one million TH/s.

It also reported a weekly drop in hashprice from $32.82 to $31.89. Its estimate of a 6.5% difficulty decrease around November 13 was a forecast, not something that had already happened. The S21’s expected output was about 0.00256 BTC over 30 days before deductions, not a guaranteed amount.

Does an ASIC really fit in an apartment?

An ASIC brings a continuous electrical load, heat and noise. 3,500 watts at 230 volts means about 15.2 amps continuously, before your other appliances. You need an electrician to assess the circuit, connections and protection devices, not the assumption that “there’s a spare outlet.”

Almost all of the energy ends up as heat, about 3.5 kW. One supplier cites fan noise of up to about 75 dB at full speed, varying by installation. In an apartment building, that’s your neighbor’s problem too.

Lower voltage or clock frequency can reduce power draw and noise, but they change performance. We measure consumption at the wall and the hashrate the mining pool actually accepts, not just the machine’s own readout. We factor in shipping, VAT where applicable, wiring, breakdowns, outages and resale value.

Do solar panels and heating save the math?

Solar panels and useful heat can improve the economics, but they don’t automatically make the energy free. With the shift toward net billing and virtual net billing, after the reforms that began with Law 5037/2023, what matters is your specific contract.

If the surplus could be sold, stored or used elsewhere, that value is given up. Running on sunshine alone limits revenue; a battery adds cost and losses. The 1,905 GWh of renewable curtailments that Green Tank estimated for January–August 2026 don’t turn into free electricity at our outlet.

The heat is only worth something when it replaces a real heating need. In energy terms an ASIC is like an electric resistance heater, while a heat pump can, under the right conditions, deliver more heat per unit of electricity. In summer, the benefit can turn into a cooling expense.

Pool or solo mining?

A mining pool distributes payouts according to set rules and smooths out variance, in exchange for fees, payout thresholds and dependence on the operator. In solo mining, there is no block reward until you find a valid block.

At 200 TH/s and the difficulty of November 9, the average expected waiting time was about 101 years and the annual probability about 1%, if everything stayed constant. That is not a payment schedule. On April 2, 2026, a miner with about 230 TH/s found block 943,411 and received about 3.139 BTC. The exception is neither a business plan nor evidence for a Greek home setup.

How is mining taxed?

The tax treatment needs to be confirmed against the final legislative text. On November 5, the Greek Parliament passed a bill introducing a 10% tax on individuals’ crypto gains, with its main application referring to tax year 2027. A report on November 8 said it was still awaiting signature and publication in the Government Gazette (FEK).

An exemption for annual net gains of up to €500 has been reported, but the final terms need checking. The interpretation for crypto-to-crypto swaps is disputed. For non-business mining, an analysis of a later draft described taxation at the point of sale with a zero acquisition cost, while earlier reports described a different approach. We don’t automatically carry over the reported 15% staking rate to mining. Keep receipts for hardware, electricity, payouts and sales, and consult a tax professional.

Our take

We think home mining in Greece makes more sense as a hobby than as an income plan on ordinary electricity. A small miner is a learning experience, but it is not the same as a full Bitcoin validating node, and the pool affects who controls block construction.

Nor is the environmental impact decided by a “solar” label: it depends on when the power is used, the alternative use of that energy and whether the heat is put to use. The 2025 Cambridge survey recorded 52.4% sustainable sources among participants, including nuclear, not for every miner or every Greek household.

We would change our view given a measured low total cost and documented use of the heat. Until then, compare the total cost of production with buying Bitcoin directly, including fees, taxes and custody. Producing something at a higher cost than it’s worth is not saving money.