Bitcoin vs. The Power Bill to Mine It (2010-2026)

Two things on one log axis: the price of one Bitcoin (a clean line), and the estimated electricity cost to mine one - drawn as a BAND (cheap industrial power at $0.04/kWh up to retail power at $0.15/kWh), because the cost depends entirely on whose power you assume. When the orange price line dips INTO the band, the retail-power miner was underwater - spending more on electricity than the coin was worth. It almost never crossed the cheap-power floor, which is exactly why the network never died: difficulty adjustment kept resetting the race.