Bitcoin: “The Best Years Are Still Ahead,” Says Sarah Sacrispeyre

While some of the major listed miners are redirecting their machines towards artificial intelligence, Sarah Sacrispeyre, CEO of Meta Mining group, is making the opposite choice: to remain a “pure and hard” Bitcoin miner. Five years after our first interview, the leader who owns one of the largest Bitcoin mining capacities in the Middle East and has “almost tripled” it since 2021, shares her reading of the network, its cycle, and its long-term horizon.

The debate sweeping the mining industry in 2026 boils down to one pivot: converting computation farms to artificial intelligence, more profitable in the short term than Bitcoin. According to CoinShares, listed miners could derive up to 70% of their revenues from AI by the end of the year. Sarah Sacrispeyre refuses this turn. A computer engineer, she started mining in 2012, as a student, when a bitcoin was worth under $10.

We interviewed her in 2021, just after China’s mining ban. Five years later, the landscape has changed: Bitcoin peaked near $124,500 in October 2025 before sliding below $78,000 in early September 2026, a drop of about 30% from its peak. We asked her about her reading of the network, the actual production cost of a bitcoin, mining ecology, and its long-term outlook.

“The Largest Bitcoin Mine in the Middle East“: Where Does Meta Mining Stand Since 2021?

Cointribune: In 2021, you told us that with your husband you aimed to become the largest Bitcoin mining entity in the world; you had just benefited from China’s mining ban to accelerate. Where do you stand with that ambition today, and what has changed most for Meta Mining since that conversation?

Sarah Sacrispeyre: Indeed, in 2021 China made the sovereign decision to ban all mining activity. This decision was very beneficial for us because it significantly boosted our activity. Bitcoin mining companies naturally relocated to the Middle East for the considerable advantages it offers: available spaces, resilience and reliability of internet and electrical infrastructures, skilled workforce, and obviously extremely competitive energy costs. This mechanically increased demand for Meta Mining, which has been a major player in the region since 2017. The result is that less than four years later, we have almost tripled our mining capacities, making us today the largest Bitcoin mining structure in the Middle East. Our goals are more ambitious than ever, and we are working tirelessly with all our teams to achieve them.

“I was mining at a loss in 2012“: An Engineer’s Perspective on Bitcoin

Cointribune: You are an engineer in mathematics and computer science before being an executive. How does seeing the network “from the inside,” via the machine and energy, change your reading of Bitcoin compared to that of an investor or trader?

That’s an excellent question. I think that is precisely the fundamental difference between Meta Mining and other market players. My approach to cryptocurrency mining has never been “economistic” or fully based on immediate profit. I prove this by the fact that when I started this activity in 2012 as a student experimentally, there was absolutely no economic interest in mining. Bitcoin was worth no more than $10; once computer equipment was acquired and electricity bills paid, I was taking a pure financial loss. Yet that did not discourage me from fully engaging in mining, to the detriment of other much more lucrative economic activities that common sense would have advised favoring. It is only because, indeed, my unique approach to the complex blockchain process allowed me to understand its full medium- and long-term potential. It must be acknowledged, more than a decade and a half later, that I was not entirely wrong since we saw Bitcoin reach record highs of over $124,500 in 2025. It is this same approach that Meta Mining still offers to its partners today.

After Bitcoin’s $124,500 Record, Where Are We in the Cycle?

The April 2024 halving reduced the block reward to 3.125 BTC. Since its October 2025 record, Bitcoin has traded around $78,000 in early September 2026, with a market capitalization of about $1.33 trillion (Fortune).

Cointribune: Bitcoin hit a peak around $124,500 in October 2025 before correcting sharply. From your position as a mining operator, how do you read the current cycle moment: a simple breathing after the halving, or a change of market nature?

Indeed, the halving causes, and we know very well now, cyclical uptrends and downtrends, “breaths” as you aptly call them, that we can mechanically observe at each halving cycle, consistently since 2012. Bitcoin follows its natural growth curve, admittedly with fluctuations, but consistent with the number of market operators and the quantity of BTC remaining to be mined.

Bitcoin Mining or Artificial Intelligence: Why Meta Mining Refuses to Shift

Several listed miners are redirecting part of their capacity towards AI and high-performance computing, deemed more profitable than mining at this stage of the cycle. CoinShares estimates AI could represent up to 70% of their revenues by the end of 2026.

Cointribune: The big story of 2026 is the shift of listed miners towards AI and high-performance computing, with up to 70% of their revenues expected by the end of 2026 according to CoinShares, some even selling their bitcoins. Meta Mining was built on pure Bitcoin mining and energy efficiency. What is your choice: to remain a Bitcoin miner, or to become a provider of computing infrastructure?

Meta Mining is and will remain a pure and hard mining company, we believe in this industry. Therefore, we have no intention to change business by turning to pure performance computing.

Producing One Bitcoin Costs $50,000 to $80,000: Does the Pure Miner Model Hold?

In the first quarter of 2026, the “hashprice”, i.e., daily revenue per unit of computing power, fell to around $29 per PH/s, a historic low compressing miners’ margins (CoinShares).

Cointribune: The hashprice fell near the breakeven point (around $29 per PH/s in the first quarter of 2026), with an estimated bitcoin production cost between $50,000 and $80,000 and an unprecedented hashrate contraction. Is the “pure” miner model, which accumulates and secures the network, still sustainable, and what is your current energy strategy?

Relevant question. It is indeed true that the production cost of a unit of account reached record levels in 2026, making the economic models of many market operators completely obsolete. If you recall our exchanges in 2021, you will notice that this did not surprise us at all and that on the contrary, we anticipated this trend. I told you at the time that the inevitable rise in production costs would inevitably lead to the disappearance of small and medium operators, who would either close due to lack of profitability or be absorbed by larger operators interested in acquiring their production means. This same reasoning motivated our growth ambition since 2020 because we knew that the race to critical size would be a key factor not only for growth but simply for survival in today’s blockchain ecosystem. Today, we can be pleased to still be pure miners because not only do we continue to benefit from a key competitiveness factor (the cheapest electricity in the world), but we have also reached a sufficient critical size to remain profitable even with unit production costs of $50,000 to $80,000.

Is Bitcoin a Network or a Safe Haven Asset?

Cointribune: Ultimately, in 2026, is Bitcoin still for you a network to be secured and believed in, or has it primarily become a financial and treasury asset for institutions and listed companies?

It is undoubtedly both. It is indeed a safe haven asset, like art or precious metals, for many companies and financial institutions (while being digital and not impacted by the inflation affecting fiat currencies). However, this does not prevent it from remaining a network far from having expressed its full potential, whose best years are still to come. We firmly believe in Bitcoin’s future and our projections have always been confirmed so far, so we have no reason to change strategy at the moment. We are simply glad that history has proven us right, because who would have imagined in 2012 when Bitcoin was worth $10 that it would become a strategic reserve for States and the largest international banking groups. We can only be happy about that.

Mining and Ecology: “Never a Constraint, a Competitiveness Lever“

Cointribune: Bitcoin mining has a reputation for high energy consumption, while you built Meta Mining on energy efficiency. In 2026, where do you stand on mining and ecology: an actual blind spot in the industry, a partly unfair accusation, or an argument further blurred by some miners’ shift to AI?

For us, the energy and eco-responsible dimension of mining has never been a constraint or a blind spot. On the contrary, it is one of our strategic productivity and competitiveness levers. Water is naturally a scarce and precious resource in the geographical areas where we operate, so we logically and naturally had to develop and implement efficient and eco-responsible technologies. I am thinking notably of the famous water curtains and closed-circuit water reserves that we use in all our farms for cooling our servers. This is not only not a constraint for us but on the contrary a massive saving in production costs: while our competitors spend fortunes to air-condition their farms or immerse their servers, we achieve massive economies of scale.

Halving 2028: “A Tragedy for the Small, a Bonanza for the Big“

In 2028, the next halving will reduce the block reward from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC. The network will then have to rely more on transaction fees and the most efficient operators.

Cointribune: In 2028, the block reward will drop to 1.5625 Bitcoin. At each halving, the subsidy reduces and the network will have to depend more on transaction fees and very efficient miners. How does mining survive this mechanism over ten or twenty years?

Just as it has survived until now: electricity cost will remain the crux of the matter, small entities will unfortunately continue to disappear in favor of large groups with sufficient cash and stock to absorb rising production costs. For small operators, the halving is a tragedy because they cannot absorb production cost increases killing the viability of their economic models. For groups like Meta Mining, the halving is excellent news because it allows the mechanical increase in Bitcoin value and thus keeps our economic model viable and profitable. Costs do rise, but they are offset by price increases, so production remains profitable and lucrative.

Where Will Bitcoin Be Mined in Ten Years?

Cointribune: Mining is migrating to cheap energy: Middle East, producing countries, otherwise wasted energy. Where do you see the geography of mining in ten years? And will the energy debate be settled by technology, regulation, or the States themselves beginning to mine?

Energy price has always been a decisive factor in the cryptocurrency mining industry. This market reality will be increasingly central and crucial, and that is precisely why Meta Mining chose from the start (in 2016) to settle in the Middle East to benefit not only from energy at unbeatable prices but also from a high-performance, reliable, and resilient IT and telecom infrastructure, as well as a qualified workforce at competitive costs. The fact that States in turn start mining is merely a natural and absolutely logical additional step in the long process of institutionalizing cryptocurrencies, mainly Bitcoin.

Currency, Store of Value: The Long-term Thesis on Bitcoin

Cointribune: In 2021, you said Bitcoin was “the currency of the future” and that all other currencies would depend on its success. Five years later, do you still hold this thesis? In ten years, do you see Bitcoin primarily as a currency, a store of value, or a reserve asset, and what, honestly, could invalidate it?

That is precisely the strength of blockchain. Being a completely decentralized and dematerialized system, we do not depend on the goodwill of any central political entity that could suddenly ban mining activity. As long as people can get a phone and an internet connection, Bitcoin will exist. We persist in believing that Bitcoin is the queen of cryptocurrencies; that is why we only mine Bitcoin in our farms. It’s the only currency that can be mined in a completely secure way via networked servers thanks to the Proof of Work system; the rest are just currency projects trying to mimic Bitcoin’s model. For us, it is indeed the locomotive to which all other cryptocurrencies, whether emerging or older, attach themselves and compare.

What Keeps Her in Bitcoin, and the Misconception She Wants to Correct

Cointribune: After several cycles operating one of the region’s major mines, what keeps you in Bitcoin? And what is the biggest misconception about Bitcoin or mining you would most like to correct?

What keeps me in Bitcoin is simply that I have seen it, over 10 years, go from $10 to $124,500 USD. That’s an unprecedented performance in history. The real challenge was when it went from $10 to $10,000 USD (x1000). And I know I will not be surprised because that is its logical evolution, and the multiplier will then be only x10, when it reaches the $1 million USD mark.

As for misconceptions about mining, there are so many that it would be difficult to isolate one. It remains a largely misunderstood field by the general public. It is a product whose creation process is technical and complex.

Key Takeaways

• Meta Mining refuses the shift toward AI and remains, according to its leader, a “pure” Bitcoin miner (Cointribune interview, September 2026).
• Bitcoin production cost estimated between $50,000 and $80,000; hashprice fell around $29 per PH/s in the first quarter of 2026 (CoinShares).
• Next halving expected in 2028: block reward will drop from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC.

This article is an interview. The statements of Sarah Sacrispeyre are her own and do not constitute investment advice. Mining and purchasing cryptocurrencies involve capital loss risk. Market data cited are dated and may evolve.

Millycrypto

Créatrice de contenu spécialisée dans les cryptomonnaies et le Web3. Je décrypte l'actualité du marché, les nouveaux protocoles et les usages on-chain pour rendre l'écosystème accessible au plus grand nombre.