[MARA CEO: Bitcoin Mining Companies Must Control Power Resources or Face Elimination Before the Next Halving] According to CoinDesk, Fred Thiel, CEO of MARA Holdings, stated that the Bitcoin mining industry is entering a challenging period marked by intensified competition, rising energy demands, and shrinking profits. He noted that Bitcoin mining is a zero-sum game, where increased hash power leads to higher mining difficulty and energy costs, compressing profit margins. The industry is becoming increasingly ruthless, and only mining companies with access to low-cost, reliable energy or innovative business models will survive. Many mining companies are pivoting to artificial intelligence or high-performance computing infrastructure, while others are being squeezed out by participants deploying their own hardware at lower costs. Thiel warned that after the next Bitcoin halving in 2028, the survival environment for mining companies will become even harsher, as block rewards will drop to slightly above 1.5 BTC. Unless transaction fees rise significantly or Bitcoin prices surge, the mining economy will struggle to remain sustainable. Bitcoin's design philosophy is that transaction fees will eventually replace block subsidies, but this has not yet materialized. Currently, transaction fees remain generally low, and even brief spikes are insufficient to replace block subsidies. In this environment, small mining companies face immense pressure. Large mining companies are adapting by controlling energy sources and investing in AI-specific infrastructure, while more streamlined mining companies may be forced to shut down. Thiel predicts that the market will self-regulate, stating: "By 2028, mining companies will either become power producers, be acquired by power producers, or collaborate with power producers."