Why Bother With Real Estate? Bitcoin Mining Crushes Property Returns By 70%

Forget rental properties and flipping houses—crypto's dirty little secret is printing serious cash while landlords chase down tenants for rent checks.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Bitcoin mining operations are delivering a staggering 70% higher returns than traditional real estate investments. That's not speculation—it's cold, hard math that should make any property investor rethink their portfolio allocation.

Hardware Over Hardhats

While real estate requires dealing with contractors, permits, and property taxes, mining rigs just need electricity and an internet connection. The barrier to entry keeps dropping as mining equipment becomes more efficient and accessible to retail investors.

The Passive Income Play

Mining operations run 24/7 without midnight calls about leaky pipes or problematic tenants. The automation level achieved in modern mining farms would make any real estate mogul jealous—and the returns make them downright nervous.

Of course, Wall Street will tell you to stick with 'safe' investments like property—after all, they can't charge 2% annually on your mining rig. But while they're collecting management fees, miners are collecting bitcoin. Your move, traditional finance.

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin mining requires less expertise, lower maintenance, and generates ~70% higher returns.
• Real estate generates a passive income, but you need ~$1-2 million to generate ~$100K per year.
• Simply Mining explains why Bitcoin mining is a superior investment to real estate in today’s digital economy.

The typical playbook for generating passive income is to invest in real estate. The story is familiar: buy a house, rent it out, sit back, and let the cash flow in. But that story is incomplete. It leaves out the part where the roof leaks, the boiler bursts, and the tenant gets behind on the rent. Relax, according to Simply Mining, there is a better way: Bitcoin mining can help you avoid these headaches and generate returns around 70% higher.

Bitcoin Mining: Breaking Down the Numbers

Simply Mining is a bitcoin mining company based in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and it brings the comparison of real estate and Bitcoin mining investing into sharp focus in a recent post.

The biggest question most investors have is, “How much capital is needed to generate $100,000 in annual passive income?” For real estate, it means tying up as much as $1–2 million in property, and factoring in a host of ongoing costs.

For Bitcoin mining using a professionally managed institutional-grade setup, the investment needed for that level of cash FLOW is under $350,000 (under current market conditions). Simply Mining breaks down a hypothetical $350,000 investment in both asset classes.

Real Estate

• $350,000 property purchase
• $2,500/month rental income ($30,000/year)
• ~$7,000 annual maintenance costs
• Net annual income: $23,000 (6.5% yield)

This doesn’t even include property taxes, insurance, or major maintenance.

Bitcoin Mining

• $350,000 buys 32 S21+ hydro miners ($11,000/each)
• Mined: ~0.185 BTC/month (current conditions)
• Electricity/maintenance: $10,915/month ($130,980/year at $0.08/kWh)
• Net annual income: $113,000 (32% yield)

Even accounting for machine depreciation of 33% per year, Bitcoin mining still outshines property. Over three years, after 70% equipment value decay, the setup still nets approximately $185,000.

Real-World Volatility and Depreciation

Of course, critics argue that real estate appreciates over time, while Bitcoin mining equipment becomes worthless, and they have a valid point; except that the pace of Bitcoin’s adoption and price gains more than offsets hardware decline.

Over the past 10 years, Bitcoin has averaged around 60% annual growth, compared to single-digit returns for real estate. Even in the last five years, Bitcoin is up around 875%, while real estate peaked at around 50%.

Moreover, Bitcoin mining payouts rise as the BTC price increases. In Simply Mining’s hypothetical scenario, mining profits could increase from $113,000 in year one to $176,000 by year three (assuming continued BTC appreciation and rising mining difficulty).

And while the dollar price of homes in many markets is stagnant or in decline, the reality is even grimmer when measured against Bitcoin. A house that might have incre

hased by 20-50% in fiat terms over the past five years actually lost massive value when denominated in BTC: in some markets, to the tune of a 90% drop in Bitcoin terms over a decade.

Generational preferences are also shifting fast. Surveys show that Zoomers and Millennials now prefer crypto and stocks to real estate. Only 13% of Zoomers have real estate holdings, while the rest are putting their capital to work in Bitcoin, ETFs, and digital assets.

Tangible Hassle vs. Digital Simplicity

Bitcoin mining requires “less expertise” than buying and managing a property. There are no agents, escrow, or property inspections, no leaks, roof repairs, or angry tenants, and no property taxes or insurance premiums.

Bitcoin mining offers full liquidity: miners can be spun up or sold faster than property (sometimes in a day), and there are daily payments, often in BTC, a scarce, non-inflationary money that appreciates over time.

Real estate is slow, illiquid, and comes bundled with ongoing headaches, and its returns diminish compared to Bitcoin mining in the current era.

Of course, not all investors are brave enough to stomach Bitcoin’s volatility. For as much as the long-term trajectory of Bitcoin may be NGU, short and mid-term headwinds, price corrections, and drawdowns are not everyone’s cup of tea.

Bitcoin mining, when managed well, can deliver double or triple the yield of a rental property, but you can’t live in your ASIC in times of crisis, and as Simply Mining emphasizes:

“Results will vary, and Bitcoin is volatile.”