ZCash Miners & Bitcoin Hydro Hosting: Live Q&A with CoreX Hosting
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7eJ2uD5jpk
Streamed live September 27, 2026 · Duration 44:00
Pricing note: rates mentioned in this stream were current at the time of recording. Hydro hosting now starts at 8¢/kWh all-in, and air-cooled hosting is 8.5¢/kWh all-in. Miner prices change daily — see corexhosting.io for current pricing.
Video Transcript
Lightly edited for readability. Viewer names from the live chat have been removed.
Chapter 1: Live stream introduction
Okay, I think I'm live. I'll wait for some people to show up. I don't have any special intro or anything like that. How's everyone doing on this fine Sunday evening? Everyone's watching football but me right now.
We'll wait a little bit, then I'll start going over my topics. I just switched to Linux on my daily computer, so I'm trying to learn everything and get it all set back up. I think I have 95% of it set up, but everything's just a little bit different, so I'm trying to get back in the groove.
Someone's watching from Honduras — that is awesome. I was in Cancun about three weeks ago, so that was nice, and I'm sure Honduras is nice 24/7.
All right, I'll go over my topics here. Everything's looking good. The first thing I was going to talk about is that it's been — what, six weeks — since I did a video.
Chapter 2: Bitcoin market update
Give or take six weeks ago, Bitcoin went from 60 up to 75, 77, maybe 80. Let's just look it up: August 20th was that huge spike from 62–63 up to 77–78. Since then everything has been riding good and going up a little bit from there.
Since then, crypto in general has been awesome for someone like me — and for you guys too, because your rewards are higher. For the most part, every miner is making money now. All the good ones, all the newer ones are making actually good money, not just slightly ahead — a lot ahead.
I've been way busier since August 20th. It's been almost non-stop every day: tons of inquiries, tons of phone calls, and a bunch of new miners turned on. I don't know the exact number, but for me it's a healthy number, so I'm pretty happy about that.
But the thing that's been driving all of our interest, and kind of everything we've been talking about, is Zcash.
Chapter 3: Zcash mining frenzy
Let me change the screen a little so it includes the price. Zcash is around $1,600. Look at the last month: it went from about $810–828 up to almost $1,600. It was $1,660 today and now it's back down to about $1,500. It was $200 back in March. From August 11th until now it went from $480–500 to over $1,500 — it 3x'd in a month and a week.
Since that happened, the price of the machines has skyrocketed as well, because the profitability skyrocketed. On the 90-day hash rate chart it went from about 19 up to 29–30 — so in 90 days it has gone up about 50%. That's about where I was thinking: every month, add about 20% hash rate. And this is all going to keep going, because the September batch of Z15Ks and Z15 Pros is coming. There are Z15 Pros available right now — you order it and you get it within a week. The September batch Z15Ks are starting to show up; I've already had some ship. This is insane, guys.
I don't know how many of you in chat have a Z15 or a Pro, or have a Z15K on order, but it's been crazy. Someone in chat has a Z9 Mini — I'm assuming you're making money. Every Z15 is making money now. It's insane.
Someone in chat just bought a Z15. I have Z15Ks coming in this week, and I've already ordered a bunch of Z15 Pros. Okay, next screen. We talked about the hash rate — I always come back to it — but this is the current pricing as of right now. Pricing usually changes around midnight, or at least that's when I'm made aware of what has changed.
Chapter 4: Miner hardware and availability
Someone bought an original Z15 — that's cool. I get asked all the time about hosting those, and I can't do it with the 277-volt, but hopefully you have it running. You're making money on it, so run it as long as you can. I think they even sell for three or four grand.
Here's the current availability of the Z15 Pros and the Z15Ks. Z15 Pros are in stock — this price is shipped and delivered — and the Z15Ks are available too. Both are shipping by the end of the week, from what I'm hearing. I've had some Z15Ks already ship. I have other pre-orders that still haven't been fulfilled yet, but I know they have more coming than what the pre-orders are. On the Z15 Pros, I was told the original batch sold out, then they got some more that they're still selling. As of last night, these were all still available, shipping out this week.
I also have a bunch of December and January batches on pre-order if you want to save a little bit. Let's run the math. Take the 840 at about $60 a day in profit. If you order a December batch, you'll get it at the end of December — say 90 days from now. 90 days times $60 is $5,400 of profit you're missing out on. So you're better off paying extra for the current batch. You'll lose a little as the hash rate goes up if the price doesn't change, but you're still ahead. I think buying the in-stock one is technically better, especially compared to a January batch.
That's what everyone's looking at now — these crazy Z15s. I get questions all the time: should I get it, how many? People are buying more than one. We've never seen anything like this, guys. I don't know of any coin that's been like this for so long. This entire year it's been crazy. It started going up in price at the end of last year, to where all the old Z15s and the original Pros were profitable. Then the April batch came in, the price kind of stayed the same, and then it just skyrocketed. Everyone that bought the April batch did really, really good.
My cat wants out the door — sorry about that, guys. All right, any questions? Start throwing stuff at me; I don't really want to just go topic to topic. I'll move on to the next topic, and after that I'll answer questions.
Chapter 5: Hydro mining advantages
Obviously the Z15 is going crazy. Otherwise, hydro has been awesome — it's the thing I've been talking about so much lately. With the Bitcoin price going way up this last month, from the 75s and 77s up to the 80s and 84s, the profitability has been so good that we've been selling quite a few Bitcoin miners. If you're buying new, there's no reason not to go the hydro route, because the price is the same or cheaper than any of the new miners.
These have been great. I don't want to give a bunch of numbers — you can look it all up — but with Bitcoin where it is, you're almost over the hump where you care about efficiency, but you don't. There's a limit, and once you get over that hump, efficiency doesn't matter as much. Then it's just your uptime and the price you pay for it. All these new S23s coming out are so expensive that you never make the ROI on them, no matter what you do — Bitcoin's got to go way up. The Whatsminers right now are fairly cheap up front, so the ROI is more realistic. They're months and months ahead of all the new Bitmains.
So if you're looking to buy any type of new Bitcoin miner, just go the hydro route. I just turned on eight of the 13 J/TH Whatsminers, and every single one of them is running at 575 or 580 terahash. No extras — they just run better than advertised. That's free hash rate, especially with the Bitcoin price going up.
I also turned on some Bitdeers. They're really expensive, but they're pretty nice. We were a little worried at first — we turned on three, and they were up and down on hash rate: up to 660, up to 690, back down to 400. It took forever for them to autotune; Bitdeers do a coarse tune, then a fine tune, and it took 24 hours. But every single one of them is now running at about 685–690. They're legit. They're more expensive, but they've been running really well.
So if you're thinking about any new miners, the Whatsminers have been awesome, and the Bitdeers have been nice but a little more expensive. I don't know if I'd buy one, because you can get the M7DS for a lot cheaper. Yes, the M7DS is 13.5 watts per terahash, but right now the efficiency gain isn't worth a lot more money — not worth $2,800 more.
Someone in chat asked me to give away a Z15 Pro. No — they're really nice, but we're not giving one away. Someone else said they're waiting on all the altcoins to catch up to Bitcoin so all the altcoin miners return to their glory, with Zcash being the exception. Correct. Everyone's talking about Dash: it went up about 68% this month, and now it's back down to about where it was. I did list the D9. I'm hosting some D9s, and they're actually making money — a buck or two a day, nothing crazy. I have them listed for sale for $1,800, which isn't a bad price. It's a gamble, but I guess it's not that big of a gamble.
Chapter 6: Hardware selection advice
A viewer wrote in: "No questions, but I just wanted to say what a terrific hosting company you run. I've been with a few, but they just don't compare." Thank you — I appreciate that a lot. I work very hard, so I appreciate you coming in here and saying that.
Question: what's the best hydro Whatsminer from a cost-per-terahash perspective? Good question. The M7DS is the same efficiency as the M73S — they're both 13.5. There is a 13 J/TH version of the M73S, but the M7DS is the same as the typical M73S, and it's a better price per terahash than the stock M73S. Now, I'm cheating here: the M73 is technically a cheaper price per terahash, but it's also 14.5 efficiency. As of today, at $80–85K Bitcoin, it's still worth it to pay a little extra and get the M7DS. It's a lot more money, but it's a lot more hash rate too. Checking my cheat sheet: the M7DS is about $12.4 per terahash and the M73 is about $12.2 — just a little bit worse on price per terahash. So the M7DS is the one I'd be looking at right now.
Someone offered to sell me their Z15 Pro at a special price. Here's the new price: that's a brand-new one that ships within a week, so does it show up in 14 days or 18 days? Your $16,000 is a little too much.
Another viewer pointed out that for the last several weeks Bitcoin miners have been so profitable while the altcoins haven't really moved much, and just this last week everything broke out. I think this is the calm before the storm. Everything kind of follows what Bitcoin's doing. If it just stays here — goes up to 95, comes back down to 85, stays in this realm — that's perfectly fine. Everyone's happy and buying miners. Doge-ish coins come up a little bit, so that makes all the L9s and L11s look better.
I've been waiting for this for a long time. When it was at 65 it was tough — not insanely bad, but tough. Now that we're up in the 75s, 80s and 85s, it is so nice. I think we're over the hump, but I don't know — maybe we go back down to 65 or 70. I figured if we were going to do that, it would have been right after the Clarity Act, because everyone was waiting for that. It was such a big buildup over the last two years, and then it didn't pass and the price didn't really change. If that was the worst-case scenario and it didn't really change, then everything's looking pretty good. Maybe I'm wrong — I'm not a chart guy. I just know Bitcoin is going to be higher in five years than it is now. That's all I care about.
Chapter 7: Used hardware market
Something else we're seeing a lot right now: there are a lot of good used S21 XP and S21 Pro prices out there. I've turned on quite a few — I've got 14 more showing up tomorrow, so after tomorrow I'll have 35 used S21 XPs turned on. And this doesn't help me to say it, but compared to any of the new miners — new S21s, new hydro miners, anything else — those used options are pretty good pricing. I don't know how much longer that's going to last, but there are some good ones out there right now.
If you're looking at that or interested in it, let me know. I'm not specifically selling them myself, but I can take care of it for you and be the middleman.
I don't do these very often, so I don't have a bunch more to go over — ask me some questions. If you've got questions, send me an email. And if you can like this live, I guess I should say that.
A viewer asked: do I think Zcash will continue, or does it slowly fade away like everything else? This is the question I get nonstop. Yes. Here's the thing — most of the time it doesn't slowly fade away. Look at Kadena, Kaspa for the most part, Alephium. Those are the main ones everyone thinks about more recently, and ones I've actually lived through. Back in November and December, when Zcash went up to $500–600, everyone was worried about new miners coming out. Then Bitmain announced they were going to make new ones, came out with the April batch, and kept making them after that.
The worry is that once new miners hit the market, a bunch of hash rate comes on and floods the network. Does the hash rate jump 50%, or 2x overnight? Then profits drop. That's what happened with Alephium: a bunch of new miners came out, the hash rate skyrocketed, the price didn't stay with it, and it was just dead. Everyone that bought those on day one was screwed.
That was the worry going into April with the April batch of Z15s. They were still profitable, but people were worried. Then they didn't even get delivered until around May 17th — so right when the price jumped, they got turned on. They ordered them when it was about $200, and then it went up to $600. Then the price came down, but there were still batches coming out. A lot of private buyers bought up the Bitmain batches — Cypherpunk was one company, and I think the Winklevoss twins are in there — so the hash rate just continued to rise as Bitmain released more and more.
Chapter 8: Market outlook and strategy
So will this continue? The hash rate is going to keep going up, because the September batch is coming out, then December and January, and they've already announced March and April. The hash rate is probably going to go up at a higher rate than it is now. If the hash rate went up 50% in three months, I think it goes up at least another 50% in the next three months. If profits are $60 a day today, that means profits will be around $40 in three months. It's still going up, but it's such a huge number to begin with that I think you're still going to be fine.
Now, the price could come back down. If it comes back down to $600, then $60 turns into $20, and as the hash rate keeps going up, that turns into $10. So you could be hurting. The hash rate is going to keep going at some high rate — the question is what the price is going to do.
Is it going to continue? Yes, I think it'll keep continuing. It'll last longer than Kaspa, longer than Alephium, longer than Kadena, as far as staying profitable. The real question is when the party is going to be over. Is it over in April? Maybe. If you're buying something for $15K today — like the math we did earlier, three months of profit right now is $5,400 — then in nine months, if nothing changes, you'd technically have it paid off. Nine months from now is June. We'll see. But if this goes up to $3,000, you'll be wishing you bought ten today. We haven't seen anything like this. That's the main thing — this has never happened before.
If you're going to buy one or two, don't risk everything you have. I've been talking with people who have plenty of money to buy multiple units, and we've been talking about some kind of split — not all of it into Zcash. Keep some in safe bets. They went with a big number of hydro and sprinkled in a healthy number of Z15s. The hydro Bitcoin miners are going to be good for a long time — they're just going to keep going and making money. The Z15s are the home-run-or-strikeout option. That's the way we looked at it. But like I said, it was risky to buy in April too, and if you did, you're loving life.
Any other questions? (I made a mistake with my stream settings — I'm on about a 60-second delay — so I'm just rolling with the punches here.)
A viewer said they'll buy a batch of Zcash units when XRP hits $589. I've never been an XRP guy. What's Ethereum been doing? Ethereum is weird — ever since it went proof of stake, it hasn't been very good. I use USDC and USDT like crazy, but Ethereum itself hasn't been great. Solana's been good. I ended up getting paid out in Solana from a pool a while ago and accumulated a bunch of it, so that was a good problem to have.
Chapter 9: Hosting services and closing
If I don't get many more questions, I'll just call it and go watch some football. To recap: Z15s are the calls I'm getting like crazy, and hydro is kind of where everything's going — we'll have a lot more to talk about on that later. Honestly, every one of my phone calls now is about Zcash: Z15s, Pros, Ks. That's all I've been talking about for the last week.
Again, guys, if you're looking at this, this is the price as of right now. These will change. They've changed pretty much every single day for the last two, three, four months. So if you come look at this on Tuesday and say you want to buy it for $15,800, that price could be too low or too high. Just check out my website, corexhosting.io — I'll have all the updated pricing on there. I change it multiple times a day as that stuff comes in.
I'll end it for tonight. I've got a busy week: 14 show up tomorrow, 12 show up on Wednesday, and a bunch more sprinkled in this week too. If you're looking for Zcash miners, let me know — send me an email at contact@corexhosting.io, or reach out through the contact form on the website. We can talk about Z15s, hydro miners, or honestly any of the air miners too — S21 XPs, M73S, any of those.
A viewer asked about the hosting rate: 8.5 cents all-in. No setup fees, no maintenance fees, no sales tax, none of that. I'm open to month-to-month contracts — I'm not going to hold your feet to the fire. If you're up and running, that's all that matters to me. That means you're happy, and if you're paying your bill on time, that means I'm happy.
One more thing to keep in mind if you're looking at hosting companies: I do not require you to mine to my own pool. I do not require you to pay me and then have me pay you back from the rewards. You go to your pool of choice, and that pool pays out to your wallet. There's no middleman for your rewards. Now that Bitcoin's going up, you're seeing all kinds of new ideas from different hosting companies. Be aware of that. If a hosting company makes you go to their pool and then pays you from the rewards, don't do it — you don't know if you're getting the right amount, or what fee they're holding back. I've been seeing that quite a bit lately.
That's it for tonight, guys. I appreciate everyone that joined, and everyone that's going to be watching this later. If you've got questions, email me or fill out the contact form on my website, and we'll go from there. Thank you very much. Have a good night.
About CoreX Hosting
CoreX Hosting provides secure, scalable, U.S.-based ASIC miner hosting in Iowa for Bitcoin miners and hydro miners — low-cost power, professional infrastructure, 24/7 monitoring, and transparent pricing. Buy ASIC miners or get hosting at corexhosting.io, or reach out directly at contact@corexhosting.io.
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