Meanwhile, investors are starting to cry foul over exorbitant payouts at American-traded Bitcoin miners. Stakeholders are flip-flopping these packages fall too heavily on equity. They believe they are failing to communicate their connection to long-term value creation for shareholders. As the recent econ4u data indicates, executive compensation in this sector has outpaced that in the IT and energy industries. This disparity has led to growing criticism and backlash from investors.

VanEck, an investment management firm famous for Bitcoin ETFs they didn’t actually manage, recently released a comprehensive examination of executive pay practices at eight U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners. The following Bitcoin miners were covered in this review: Bit Digital, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf. The audience for their research includes corporate directors, managers and compensation consultants whose practices keep executive pay disconnected from company performance.

Rising Executive Compensation

That last option would be a significant change, as bitcoin mining executives in 2021 and 2022 saw their paychecks rise dramatically. As of 2023, the mean pay for these execs totaled $6.6 million. However, this number more than doubled to $14.4 million in 2024, driven almost entirely by their large stock compensation packages.

In 2023, equity awards represented an astounding 79% of total compensation. This share is scheduled to rise to 89% in 2024. This increased dependence on equity has raised alarm bells over the possibility of diluted shareholder value. This is especially the case if the equity is not tied to clear performance standards.

"Miner executive pay practices remain aggressive, equity-heavy, and often weakly aligned with shareholder outcomes.” - VanEck or researchers

Shareholder Rejection and Recommendations

These generous compensation packages certainly haven’t been lost on the shareholders. In 2022, Riot Platforms' shareholders rejected the firm’s say-on-pay proposal after the company disclosed nearly $22 million in CEO compensation. Of those eight miners examined by VanEck, in 2025, three received more than 30% opposition on their executive compensation proposals. This backlash is indicative of how terribly investors feel about these kinds of decisions.

The median shareholder support for executive compensation plans in the Bitcoin mining space is just 64%. This figure is well below the average approval rate — about 90% — for S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies. This jarring juxtaposition highlights the blatant skepticism investors have on current compensation practices.

In response to these concerns, VanEck has proposed a number of reforms. The firm recommends that miners prioritize tying bonuses to the cost per coin mined, which would more directly link executive compensation to operational efficiency.

Proposed Solutions for Alignment

VanEck suggests penalizing companies for lack of capital efficiency required such as return on invested capital. This gets us closer to having executive pay reflect how well they utilize the company’s resources. Furthermore, they recommend enhancing performance-based criteria for equity-based awards that include multi-year vesting schedules. This would better align the interest of executives to long-term value creation, not short-term value popping.

"As Bitcoin miners mature into large-scale infrastructure operators, their executive compensation programs must evolve as well." - researchers

TeraWulf and Core Scientific are posterchildren for companies that have had big payday payouts. They incentivized their executives with 2% of the growth of their market cap. Riot Platforms awarded 73% of its market cap gain to its principal executive officers. This would be a huge $230 million in 2024. Such large payouts, particularly when out of proportion to total shareholder returns, have stoked investor dissatisfaction.