The 10 Best Cryptocurrency to Mine in 2024
Anyone planning to get into crypto mining should get acquainted with the mining operations required and the benefits of mining pools depending upon the exact coin they decide to mine. To be successful in this endeavor, it’s very important to understand one’s objectives and limitations first.
On this page, we will acquaint you with the best cryptocurrency to mine in 2024 and also tell you about the different platforms you can use to mine them. You’d also be informed about the mining profitability aspect of cryptocurrencies and the pros & cons of taking this route to crypto acquisition.
Our List of the 10 Top Cryptocurrencies to Mine
Here is a list of 10 cryptocurrencies that definitely deserve a look from anyone interested in crypto mining.
Here is a list of 10 cryptocurrencies that deserve a look from anyone interested in cryptocurrency mining.
1. Bitcoin – Most Popular Cryptocurrency to Mine
If you have the capital and are willing to put in the effort, Bitcoin (BTC) continues to be the number one choice amongst cryptocurrency miners across the world. Its price was hovering around the $ 38,000/BTC mark at the time of writing this piece.
However, please also know that the current BTC mining reward is 6.25 BTC per block, which will reduce to 3.125 BTC after four years in the next halving. Bitcoin mining is also considerably more difficult and resource-consuming cryptocurrency to mine than newer cryptos in the market.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining cryptocurrency? Learn how to invest in Bitcoin using our comprehensive guide or buy Bitcoin from our recommended platform below!
2. Ethereum – Best Crypto to Mine for Smart Contracts
Having gained widespread recognition for being at the forefront of innovation in the crypto industry, courtesy of its ‘smart contracts’ and ‘dApps’, Ethereum or Ether is an extremely popular cryptocurrency one can mine at present. The cryptocurrency has a market cap of around $ 171 billion at the time of writing this article.
The current Ethereum mining reward stands at 2 ETH per block. It uses the Ethash hashing function and can be mined with CPU mining and GPU mining devices. Please note, though this cryptocurrency has converted to Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0), after changing its consensus algorithm from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), anyone mining Ethereum still has at least a couple of more years to continue with PoW on Ethereum.
The present ETH won’t be switched to the latest PoS blockchain any time prior to phase 1.5 of ETH 2.0.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining cryptocurrency? Learn how to invest in Ethereum using our comprehensive guide or buy ETH from our recommended platform below!
3. ZCash – Best for Individual Miners and Private Transactions
The year 2016 saw the launch of multiple great cryptocurrencies, including Zcash (ZEC). Considering that the ZCash development company is excessively focused on privacy, it’s emerging as an excellent cryptocurrency to mine. However, you can’t mine ZEC easily despite its ASIC-resistant design.
Nevertheless, its value of not being fragile makes it an ideal cryptocurrency mining opportunity for people willing to take a long-term approach. The current mining reward is 2.5 ZEC/block, and 21 million coins are the maximum possible supply, all of it expected to be mined by 2032. ZCash mining requires a higher RAM owing to its Equihash algorithm.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining cryptocurrency? Learn how to invest in Zcash using our comprehensive guide or buy Zcash from our recommended platform below!
4. Grin – Best for Private Transactions
Grin (GRIN) came into being in the year 2019 and as against other cryptocurrencies, it doesn’t have any maximum supply associated with it. Considering that it employs Cuckoo-style mining for being ASIC-resistant, it enables easy mining with CPU and GPU devices for regular cryptocurrency users, without the need for a huge investment. The hashing function used is MimbleWimble and the current mining reward stands at 60 GRIN per block.
5. Monero – Best Cryptocurrency to Mine for Beginners With CPU Mining
This is another popular ASIC-resistant cryptocurrency that values the importance of equity when it comes to cryptocurrency mining. With a market capitalization in the vicinity of $ 3 billion, Monero (XMR) continues to be amongst the most profitable cryptocurrencies to mine. Mining Monero earns miners a current reward of 2.15 XMR per block and the total number of blocks expected to be supplied are 2,272,762. It employs the CryptoNightR hashing function and only needs mining equipment for CPU mining and GPU mining devices.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining Monero? Learn how to invest in Monero or buy Monero from our recommended platform below!
6. Ravencoin – Best Cryptocurrency to Mine for Beginners
Launched only a few years ago in 2018, Ravencoin (RVN) emerged from a Bitcoin hard fork. This cryptocurrency has gained widespread popularity owing to its special features, for instance, its mobile crypto wallet (along with seed phrases), messaging, and RVN voting.
Additionally, it gets traded fairly actively on all major cryptocurrency exchanges, making it extremely liquid in nature. Mining Ravencoin is attractive for miners because of its KawPow protocol mining software and X16R hashing function. The block reward for mining Ravencoin stands at 5,000 RVN per block as of now.
7. Litecoin – Best Crypto to Mine for Mining Groups
Litecoin (LTC), which is counted amongst the best Bitcoin hard forks, has a wide appeal as well as solid functionalities. It is counted as one of the top 10 profitable cryptocurrencies on several lists, and for good reason too as it supports GPU mining. LTC mining makes use of the Scrypt protocol and is amongst the leading profitable crypto to mine with GPUs (Graphics Processing Units).
As evident, the hashing function used is Scrypt and up until August 2023, all Litecoin miners will be rewarded with 12.5 LTC for every mined block. As of Jan 2024, a total of 74.1 million LTCs had been mined out of a maximum 84 million.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining? Learn how to invest in Litecoin using our comprehensive guide or buy Litecoin from our recommended platform below!
8. Dash – Secure Cryptocurrency to Mine
Dash (DASH) is a hard fork of Litecoin and came into being in January 2014. It has a market cap of around $ 1.07 billion and is well-known for enabling secure and swift transactions across the world through PrivateSend and InstantSend.
The mining algorithm used is X11, a creation of Evan Duffield, the Dash founder. There are a total of 9.96 million DASH in circulation right now and the current reward for mining Dash stands at 2.88 DASH per block.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining? Learn how to invest in Dash using our comprehensive guide or buy DASH from our recommended platform below!
9. Dogecoin – Popular Amongst Mining Cryptocurrencies
What began as a joke for some light-hearted fun, Dogecoin (DOGE) rapidly grew in popularity to become one of the most successful and widely adopted cryptocurrencies in no time! It was initially released in December 2013 as another one of the Litecoin forks.
DOGE is primarily used for tipping Reddit and Twitter content creators and you can mine Dogecoin using CPU mining or GPU mining devices. It uses the Scrypt protocol mining process and has no capping on the total supply. The block reward currently stands at 10,000 Dogecoins per block.
Don’t want to wait to earn from the mining process? Learn how to invest in Dogecoin or buy Dogecoin from our recommended platform below!
10. Bitcoin Gold – Best for Individual miners
Another one of the Bitcoin hard forks, Bitcoin Gold (BTG) was launched in 2017. How it differed from Bitcoin was that it used Equihash instead of the PoW algorithm. The idea was to democratize Bitcoin mining and disallow the usage of specialized mining equipment.
This cryptocurrency was designed specifically to be mined with GPU devices and can be considered an excellent option for any GPU miners seeking a profitable cryptocurrency to mine this year. The reward for mining Bitcoin Gold is 6.25 coins per block and there are around 18.6 million BTG in existence today.
Don’t want to wait to earn from mining? Learn how to invest in Bitcoin Gold or buy Bitcoin Gold from our recommended platform below!
Where to Invest Your Mined Cryptocurrency
If you want to trade the cryptocurrencies on the above list, you can start with the recommended platforms listed next.
What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Simply put, cryptocurrency mining is the process that involves solving complex mathematical equations using specialized hardware, to validate the various cryptocurrency transactions. For each new cryptocurrency that is mined, the people involved in making it possible are rewarded a fraction of that currency.
As against popular belief, cryptocurrency mining doesn’t imply the creation of a new coin, however, it means the release of one from the overall supply.
The majority of the crypto products in the market today have a limited number of coins that will be released over the years, increasing their value, as they become rarer. The biggest reason why cryptocurrency mining exists is to resolve the largest issue associated with such currencies which is double-spending.
Cryptocurrency mining can be done using three distinct types of computer components– CPU(Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphics Processing Units or Graphics Cards) or ASIC mining (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit)–depending upon the extent of investment you’re willing to make.
Crypto Mining Methods
There are three types of mining that you are able to choose from:
Solo Mining
This is pretty self-explanatory but individual mining is mining with your own equipment, independently from other miners. The benefit of solo mining is that all rewards will go to you but with the high rewards come matching levels of competition. A significant amount of equipment will be needed to be the first to validate a transaction instead of other miners.
Pool Mining
A mining pool is a server that combines the computational power of all the miners within the mining pool. This does increase the chance of verifying transactions and getting rewards but that reward will be split amongst all participating miners in the mining pool.
Cloud Mining
For a lower investment in mining hardware and equipment costs, cloud mining services are when a miner rents computing power from a mining service to mine crypto. This means a lower cost barrier to enter and start mining crypto and you can mine almost any cryptocurrency that you desire.
Nowadays, it’s also possible to mine cryptocurrencies using one’s mobile phone, by lending its computing power to a pertinent app.
Pros & Cons of Crypto Mining
Pros
- It can help you gain access to coins without buying them if resources and luck are on your side.
- It remains the most conventional and purest way to obtain a PoW cryptocurrency.
- Nowadays, anyone can mine a crypto, even a smartphone owner, as long as they’re willing to lend some computational power.
- Approaches like cloud mining have made it easier for people to enter this space.
Cons
- Mining popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be a very expensive affair and is not for everyone.
- With PoS consensus becoming increasingly popular, mining might not be that prevalent going forward.
- The process involves some amount of technical knowledge.
Is Cryptocurrency Mining Profitable?
The mining hardware, power requirements, mining software, and costs involved in mining popular proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin don’t make it profitable anymore, unless of course, you’re a corporate entity willing to invest millions of dollars. However, the lesser-known Proof of Work cryptos still have plenty of mining potential and can take you places if you get in at the right time!
Please remember, there are various other considerations like current market price, block rewards, hash rates, possible halving etc. which must also be factored in before going ahead with such an endeavor as crypto mining.
It also behooves us to acknowledge the competition between Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies. Now, when it’s possible to generate revenues from validating transactions by simply staking coins, not everyone would want to start mining them anymore. Having said that, it can’t be denied that crypto mining, though more complicated, delivers bigger rewards. It all comes down to the resources you’re willing to invest to mine cryptocurrency.
As mentioned earlier, you can mine PoW coins by becoming a part of some mining pool, running an independent mining machine set-up (with CPUs, GPUs and/or ASIC devices) or by renting a third-party’s computing power. Please note, should you choose to have your own set-up to mine cryptocurrency, you’d need to factor in electricity costs and the cost of updating the mining hardware & mining software from time-to-time.
The electricity costs may vary from country to country and is cheapest in China, where a large majority of crypto mining happens today. New and inexperienced miners could consider smaller cryptos with an easier mining difficulty that delivers more cost-benefit but the mining apparatus setup costs can go up to around $1000 upfront on a consumer-level mining rig.
The electricity costs will vary depending on where a user resides. However, the biggest upside of the entire activity is gaining a coin whose value could see some appreciation with time.
Cloud Mining
If you don’t want to risk a large amount of capital and effort by purchasing and running your own mining hardware, you could try cloud mining to mine cryptocurrency. This involves renting mining machines to earn mining rewards while someone else does all the work.
CCG is one of the most popular cloud mining contract providers. It provides the highest hashrate and offers a choice of contracts to suit different aims and budgets.
Alternatives to Cryptocurrency Mining
The mining journey isn’t for everyone—acquiring the right hardware and processing power can involve a significant amount of effort and expense. What’s more, you may find yourself competing with industrial-large scale mining operations, such as Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings, and Argo Blockchain.
A simpler and cheaper way to profit from mining is to buy shares in one of these mining companies. This is easily done by signing up with a crypto broker that offers mining company stocks. You can get started by clicking on the link to our preferred partner below.
Riot Blockchain (RIOT)
Riot Blockchain has Bitcoin mining facilities in New York and Texas, including North America’s single largest Bitcoin mining and hosting facility. The company aims to increase its capacity and hash rate by expanding its operations with the purchase of more mining machines.
Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA)
Digital asset technology company Marathon Digital Holdings has been around since 2010, when it started collecting encryption-related patents. The company already has a sizeable fleet of Bitcoin miners and aims to build North America’s largest mining operation while keeping energy costs low.
Argo Blockchain (ARB)
Argo Blockchain comprises a dynamic team of mining and blockchain experts that prize innovation. The company supports the development of blockchain technologies and advocates the use of renewable power sources to create a sustainable blockchain infrastructure.
Final Thoughts on the Best Crypto to Mine
Cryptocurrency mining could help a user gain access to coins provided you do thorough calculations of earnings and investments beforehand, and approach it in a planned manner. The advantages offered by crypto mining far outweigh its cons, and as long as one’s budget corresponds with what you plan to mine, there is potential value to be made in any such venture.