Bitcoin Miners Face Shareholder Backlash Over Executive Pay Surge

Investors are increasingly voicing their discontent with what they perceive as excessive compensation packages for executives in the Bitcoin mining sector. According to a recent report by asset manager VanEck, executives in this industry are earning significantly more than their counterparts in the IT and energy sectors, primarily due to generous stock compensation packages. This has led to a growing backlash from shareholders who are concerned about the dilution of their investments and the lack of alignment between executive pay and long-term value creation.

The report, authored by VanEck's head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel and investment analyst Nathan Frankovitz, revealed that the average shareholder approval for executive pay packages in the Bitcoin mining sector stands at just 64%, compared to around 90% for companies listed in the S&P 500 and Russell 3000 indices. This discrepancy suggests that shareholders are becoming more skeptical of the compensation practices in this industry.

The researchers examined the executive compensation of eight US-listed Bitcoin miners: Bit Digital, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, and TeraWulf. They found that while the average compensation for Bitcoin miner executives was $6.6 million in 2023, this figure nearly doubled to $14.4 million in 2024. This significant increase far exceeds the compensation levels in comparable sectors such as energy and technology.

The compensation packages for these executives are predominantly equity-based, with equity awards comprising 79% of total pay in 2023 and 89% in 2024. Riot Platforms CEO Fred Thiel received the largest equity award at $79.3 million in 2024, which was nearly double that of MARA Holdings and Core Scientific and multiple times more than the other miner CEOs’ equity grants. This highlights the stark disparities in executive pay within the industry.

The report also noted that there are significant disparities in pay-for-performance alignment. For instance, while companies like TeraWulf and Core Scientific paid executives just 2% of their market cap growth, Riot Platforms paid 73% of its market cap increase to named executive officers, totaling $230 million in 2024. These disparities echo concerns first raised in 2022, when Riot’s shareholders rejected the firm’s say-on-pay proposal after disclosing almost $22 million in CEO compensation.

In 2025, three of the eight miners faced “striking rebukes” on their executive pay proposals, indicating a growing trend of shareholder dissatisfaction. The researchers suggested that miners focus on tying bonuses to cost per coin mined, incorporating capital efficiency measures like return on invested capital, and strengthening performance requirements for equity awards with multi-year vesting. They concluded that as Bitcoin miners mature into large-scale infrastructure operators, their executive compensation programs must evolve to better align with shareholder interests.

On the positive side, six of the eight miners have adopted performance stock units (PSUs) with multi-year vesting tied to share price targets or relative total shareholder return. Most companies now support annual say-on-pay votes for increased accountability. PSUs are a type of equity compensation where executives receive company stock, but only if certain performance conditions are met. This approach aims to better align executive compensation with long-term shareholder value creation.