Are you considering crypto mining or looking for the best crypto to mine 2025? With the right setup and strategy, it could be one of the smartest ways to earn digital assets this year.
In fact, in the middle of 2025, a lone miner stunned the crypto community by receiving more than $330,000 for independently mining a complete Bitcoin block and showing that even in such a competitive environment, a big win can be achieved by a person.
This guide will discuss the top cryptocurrencies to mine in 2025 and help you decide what to mine based on mining profitability, energy efficiency, and your hardware setup.
What is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Cryptocurrency mining consists of checking transactions and adding them to the blockchain. Complicated puzzles are solved on computer hardware (hashing) to ensure network security and pay miners in cryptocurrency. The procedure verifies transactions securely and mints new coins for circulation.
Mining needs specific equipment:
- ASICs for mining Bitcoin and Litecoin efficiently.
- GPUs for coins like Ravencoin and Ethereum Classic are especially suitable for GPU mining, making them ideal if you're looking for the best crypto to mine with GPU.
- CPUs for coins like Monero.
Miners are compensated for performing their work, which keeps the decentralized networks safe and running.
How Mining Has Evolved
During the initial years of cryptocurrency, mining was possible on almost any laptop. However, as networks, such as Bitcoin, became larger and more secure, the difficulty of mining also rose, as did the demand for more efficient hardware. This contributed to the emergence of GPUs and, ultimately, ASICs, which are machines that are designed to mine only a single algorithm type. Mining is now much more specialized and competitive, but for the adaptable, it can still be profitable.
The majority of miners have shifted to mining pools where rewards are shared among many users who pool their resources together. Solo mining is still a possibility, but it is normally only viable on a large scale with huge hash rates and cheap electricity.
Top Cryptocurrencies to Mine in 2025
The coin selection should be based on your objectives, equipment, energy costs, аnd whether you are looking for industrial-scale options or the best crypto to mine at home using a basic setup.
Some of them need ASICs, and some can be mined on a GPU or even a CPU. A comparison table is provided below for quick comparison with simplified descriptions of each coin.
*Difficulty = how competitive it is to earn mining rewards. Higher difficulty = more powerful gear needed.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Being the most valuable crypto, Bitcoin has the highest block rewards in dollar value ($109,000 in mid-2025), but it is extremely difficult to mine profitably as an individual. You require the latest generation SHA256 ASIC miners and low-cost electricity rates.
Ravencoin (RVN)
Ravencoin has an ASIC-resistant algorithm, KawPow. RVN is often listed among the best cryptos to mine due to its accessibility. The standard GPUs can mine RVN efficiently, and the block time is short (1 minute). It has an active community, and developers intend to halve the rewards in 2026. The price of RVN is not so high, and its supply cuts in half approximately every 4 years, yet it is popular among domestic miners due to its accessibility.
Litecoin (LTC)
An old-timer, Litecoin is a 2.5-minute block-time coin with an algorithm of Scrypt. Today, it is mined only using Scrypt ASICs. The solo GPU mining of Litecoin is actually not an option; ASIC rigs are needed to be competitive. Nevertheless, numerous miners use merged mining when a Litecoin block creates 10,000 DOGE (Dogecoin) at the same time because LTC and DOGE are on the same proof-of-work. This is a two-fold reward (LTC + DOGE), which makes Scrypt ASIC mining more appealing. The network of Litecoin is already established, and the liquidity is quite high, although the price of both LTC and DOGE may be volatile.
Monero (XMR)
Monero is the most popular privacy coin, whose transactions are disguised through ring signatures and stealth addresses. More importantly, Monero has a RandomX algorithm, which is ASIC-resistant and CPU-friendly. This has turned Monero into one of the least exclusive coins, with a large number of miners running XMRig or something similar on laptops/PCs. Block rewards are currently relatively small (0.6 XMR per block plus fees, worth perhaps $100-150), and the total supply of Monero is low, but due to its tail emission, miners will never stop receiving rewards. Since Monero is privacy-centered, certain exchanges have delisted it, and the miners must be cautious of potential regulatory and liquidity problems.
Zcash (ZEC)
Another privacy coin (zk-SNARKs) based on the Bitcoin code is Zcash. It provides optional personal transactions as well as public ones. Zcash is technically GPU-minable, but in practice, ASIC miners dominate it since the community voted in 2021 to permit the use of ASICs. Nowadays, a GPU may mine ZEC, yet it will not pay off. The most efficient ones are the commercial Equihash ASICs (e.g., Bitmain Z15, MicroBT). The strength of Zcash is the established development community and well-developed privacy tech, although be aware that ASIC miners imply the risk of centralization, and exchanges may be limited by regulatory prudence. Zcash remains a strong option for those comparing the best crypto currency to mine for privacy and performance.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Originally a joke, Dogecoin is now a popular cryptocurrency with significant demand. Scrypt ASICs continue to be used to mine DOGE, frequently through merged mining with Litecoin. Under a merged-mining scheme, a block on the Litecoin network also pays out a DOGE block reward (10,000 DOGE). If you're a doge miner, these machines are a go-to choice: Bitmain Antminer or Goldshell Mini-DOGE Pro. CoinWarz gives a single machine mining DOGE, making $5.83/day, compared to $9.41/day on the same hash power on Bitcoin. Dogecoin is an inflationary coin with extreme price volatility. Nevertheless, it is a stable companion to Scrypt ASIC miners due to its merged mining with LTC.
Vertcoin (VTC)
Vertcoin is specifically an ASIC-resistant fork of Bitcoin. It is intended to maintain mining decentralized and available to home GPUs. Consequently, any good consumer GPU, including even the low-end models, can be competitive in mining VTC. Vertcoin is a good recommendation to those who are new to the cryptocurrency market due to its simplicity of use and supportive community. The disadvantage is that the coin is fairly unknown and cheap (at the moment, only a couple of cents), and, similarly to most other coins, it is programmed to halve its block reward every four years or so. Indeed, the next Vertcoin halving is projected in December 2025, and then, rewards will decrease to 6.25 VTC per block. That is why miners are to expect reduced payments after 2025.
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Ethereum Classic is the pre-fork PoW chain of the Ethereum fork of 2016. It still uses a modified version of Ethash, Etchash. GPUs are the most appropriate mining tool when mining ETC as compared to CPUs or ASICs. Now that Ethereum has shifted to staking, ETC has become the primary GPU-mined offshoot. Thus, many GPU miners flocked to ETC. It has a block reward of 2.56 ETC per block with a limit of 210.7 million supply. With the level of difficulty being significantly lower than it was with Ethereum, smaller miners can still locate blocks on a regular basis. It is usual to join a mining pool (e.g., Ethermine, 2Miners) to earn a steady income.
Grin (GRIN)
Grin is a privacy coin following the MimbleWimble protocol. It is based on a two-algorithm model, Cuckaroo29 (ASIC-resistant, GPU-based) and Cuckatoo32+ (ASIC-friendly). That implies that you can mine Grin using a GPU or an ASIC. The block rewards are constant (60 GRIN per block) and are constantly released (no halving period). The positive aspect is robust privacy promises and a society that believes in minimalism. The negative is that Grin has a poor price and exchange availability, and mining requires a lot of memory. So, Grin mining is a niche, yet appealing if you trust in complete privacy features.
Factors to Consider When Choosing What to Mine
Consider these critical factors before mining; these are the ones that have a direct bearing on your profitability. Assess frequently since the difficulty of the network and market prices vary.
Hardware Compatibility
There are coins that need very high-performance ASIC machines, and there are coins that are GPU or even CPU-friendly. Select a coin that fits your current configuration- or one you can afford to create or upgrade.
Energy Consumption & Electricity Cost
Mining can be one of the largest continuous expenses, which is power. Multi-GPU rigs and ASICs are capable of consuming thousands of watts. Try to find coins that are energy efficient or mine at off-peak power times.
As a matter of fact, energy prices are currently driving out some institutional players in mining totally. In 2025, listed miner Bit Digital said it would quit Bitcoin mining due to efficiency reasons. The company will use around $34 million worth of BTC to be converted into ETH and switch fully to Ethereum staking, which requires much less power and produces a more predictable amount of yield.
Profitability
Take into account the coin's block reward, the current price in the market, the mining difficulty, and your electricity expenses. Before committing, estimate earnings using a mining profitability calculator (such as WhatToMine or CoinWarz), which helps you assess your potential mining profitability before investing.
Coin Value & Market Liquidity
The coins that are mined ought to be in demand and be included in the major exchanges. When a coin is illiquid or is traded on a small market, it is possible to end up with low-value tokens.
Mining Difficulty & Network Hashrate
High difficulty implies that you will require more powerful hardware or more efficiency to gain something. Coins with lower difficulty are simpler to mine and might be less profitable in general.
Reward Frequency
There are coins with rapid, low payouts (such as Ravencoin or Dogecoin), and there are those that have bigger and slower payouts (such as Bitcoin). Select a coin of your income preferences and patience.
Community & Development Support
The more active developers and a sound community, the higher the possibilities of a coin to survive and prosper in the long term. This also eliminates the mining of dead or abandoned projects.
Privacy, Regulation, and Risk
In some countries, the use of privacy coins (such as Monero or Zcash) could be banned on the exchanges. Also, take care of new or low-cap coins, which could be more volatile or change rapidly.
Quick Mining Setup Tips for Beginners
There are some practical starting tips:
- Select the correct rig. When it comes to ASIC-friendly coins (BTC, LTC/DOGE), you will require an ASIC such as Antminer S19/S21 or L7. GPU coins (RVN, ETC, ZEC) require a mid-high-end GPU (e.g., NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti, AMD RX 6600 XT or higher). Monero is the exception, RandomX can be mined with a decent CPU (10-12 cores) profitably.
- Use a mining pool. If you do not have an enormous hash power, solo mining is highly unlikely to provide you with rewards. Such pools as ViaBTC, F2Pool, 2Miners, Ethermine, etc., allow you to use your hash power combined with that of other people to receive consistent payments. (e.g., such popular pools as Dogecoin are F2Pool and ViaBTC). When selecting, compare the fees and payout thresholds.
- Keep your rigs cool and monitor them. Good cooling (fans, AC, hydro) and ventilation are needed. Hardware that overheats slows down and reduces its life span. Keep GPU/ASIC temps monitored with software. And keep an eye on power consumption: even an efficient rig may not be profitable in case the power bills skyrocket. A balance of power vs. heat is achieved by some miners through undervolting or underclocking.
- Update firmware/software. It is important to have your mining software (e.g., CGMiner, XMRig) up-to-date to be efficient and secure. Likewise, apply the most recent ASIC firmware that is available. An optimized, patched miner may produce more hash power or less power consumption.
- Accounting plan. Track the income using a spreadsheet or mining monitoring tool (profitability estimator of NiceHash, CoinWarz calculator, and so on). Take note of your statistics every day. This will guide you to know when to change coins in case of changes in profitability.
Conclusion
With the further development of cryptocurrency mining, 2025 opens numerous opportunities to both experienced miners and new ones. You might be operating an ASIC farm or have a humble mining rig at home, but the trick behind success is selecting the correct coin, particularly when it comes to comparing the most profitable crypto to mine in regard to your targets and configuration. For high-profit ASIC mining, it's Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC) (with DOGE). For home GPU/CPU rigs, it's Ravencoin (RVN), Monero (XMR), Vertcoin (VTC), and Ethereum Classic (ETC). For privacy-focused or niche support, it's Zcash (ZEC) and Grin (GRIN).
Above all, mining isn’t a “set it and forget it” process. Stay updated on each coin’s development, market trends, and hardware requirements. Use mining calculators, monitor your energy usage, and regularly re-evaluate your strategy to stay profitable.
By aligning your mining efforts with the right tools and the right coin, you’ll give yourself the best chance of earning meaningful rewards in 2025 and contributing to the blockchain networks you believe in.
FAQs
Is crypto mining still profitable?
Yes, crypto mining is still profitable; however, profitability is under the influence of a variety of factors, mostly the cost of electricity, the efficiency of the hardware, the market price, and the mining difficulty. Coins such as Bitcoin and Litecoin may be lucrative to people with high-performance ASICs and low-cost power, whereas other coins such as Ravencoin or Monero may be more suitable to smaller GPU- or CPU-based operations. The mining calculators can be used to determine possible profits depending on your circumstances.
How is the mining income taxed?
In a majority of countries, a cryptocurrency that is mined is considered to be taxable income at the moment when it is received, depending on its fair market value. In case you then sell the coins that you mined, you might pay capital gains tax on the price rise as well. The policies differ depending on the country, and hence, it is advisable to seek the assistance of a local tax expert or refer to your taxing authority. There is also the possibility of some miners having to register as a business, particularly when mining is carried out on a large scale.
Which crypto mining pays the most?
Today, the dollar value of the bitcoin (BTC) rewards per block is the highest, but it is also the most challenging to mine and costly. Scrypt ASIC miners get good returns with Litecoin (LTC) and, in particular, when combined with Dogecoin (DOGE). To small-scale miners using GPUs, Ravencoin (RVN) or Ethereum Classic (ETC) could be the more profitable coins due to efficiency and availability.
What is the easiest crypto to mine?
Monero (XMR) can be regarded as the crypto that is easiest to mine by a beginner. It is also accessible without special equipment, which is possible to mine with a standard CPU using such free programs as XMRig. Vertcoin (VTC) and Ravencoin (RVN) are other newbie-friendly coins that are meant to be ASIC-resistant and friendlier to home miners.
Maryna Hornieieva
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