American Bitcoin Defends Cheapest US Miner Status

American Bitcoin mined coins at $36,200 each in Q1 2026, cutting costs 23% and posting a 50% gross margin.

American Bitcoin (ABTC), the Bitcoin mining company backed by the Trump family, cut its cost per coin 23% to roughly $36,200 in the first quarter of 2026, placing it among the lowest-cost public miners in the US. The company reported a gross mining margin above 50% alongside an $81.8 million net loss driven largely by a $117 million non-cash impairment on its bitcoin holdings.

The improvement in cost came from spreading higher production volume across a stable fixed-cost base, combined with what management called “continued energy pricing discipline.” The Drumheller site in Alberta, activated in late March, added roughly 3.05 exahash of computing power.

Total fleet capacity reached 28.1 exahash by quarter-end across roughly 89,000 mining machines. Eric Trump, co-founder and chief strategy officer, has consistently framed the company’s strategy around scale and low-cost production rather than the AI pivot pursued by rivals.

“Scaling hashrate is one of the ways we strengthen our position in Bitcoin,” Trump said in a recent statement. Public miners have collectively signed more than $70 billion in AI infrastructure contracts and reduced their bitcoin treasuries by over 15,000 BTC since late 2024 to fund the transition. American Bitcoin is taking the opposite approach.

American Bitcoin added 1,620 bitcoin to its strategic reserve in the quarter, pushing holdings to roughly 7,021 BTC, a 30% increase from the prior period. Of that, 817 came from mining and 803 from open-market purchases.

Mining economics and what makes it cheap

US miners broadly face rising pressure from surging tariffs on ASIC hardware from Southeast Asia and on steel and copper used in mining containers. American Bitcoin’s low electricity costs, estimated at well below $0.05 per kilowatt-hour at its key sites, give it a structural cost advantage over operators on older hardware or higher-cost power.

At $36,200 per coin against a Bitcoin price hovering near $80,000 during the quarter, that margin gives American Bitcoin significantly more room to hold rather than sell its production, supporting its long-term treasury accumulation strategy.