The US Bitcoin Mining Executives earned more than their peers in the IT and energy sectors due to generous stock payments, and shareholders fought, according to new findings from asset manager Vaneck.
Despite the “aggressive payments packages,” Bitcoin’s mining shareholders are “balking,” head of Vaneck’s Digital Assets Research Mateo Sigel and Investment Analyst Nathan Frankovitz reported on Thursday.
Researchers have found that the average approved shareholder for executive pay packages is only 64% compared to nearly 90% for the S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies.
“That skepticism appears to be well established. Mining executives continue to give themselves over the excessive equity awards that release shareholders unable to rely on pay to long-term value creation,” they added.
Researchers reviewed the executive payments all eight listed on US Bitcoin miners: Bit Digital, Cipher Mining, Cleanspark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, Mara Holdings, Riot platform and Terawulf.
Researchers have also found that while Bitcoin Miner executives gained an average of $ 6.6 million in 2023, it almost doubled to $ 14.4 million in 2024, which further exceeded comparable sectors such as energy and tech.
Equity-based compensation
The compensation was predominantly based on equity, with equity awards consisting of 79% of the total salary in 2023 and 89% in 2024, the report was stated.
Riot platform CEO Fred Thiel Received the largest equity award at $ 79.3 millison in 2024. It was almost twice as Mara Holdings and Core Scientific and many times more than other CEOS ‘equity grant.
“Miner’s payment skills remain aggressive, heavy equity, and are often weakly aligned with the outcomes of the shareholder.”
Stark Disparities with Executive Pay
The report also highlighted stark disparities on pay-for-performance alignment. While companies like Terawulf and Core Scientific Paid Executive are just 2% of their market cap growth, riot platforms pay 73% of its market cap increase in the named Executive Officer, worth $ 230 million in 2024.
Related: Bitcoin Miner’s production collapsed in June in electricity, period
Researchers noted that these variations were concerned to rise first in 2022, when riot shareholders rejected the company’s Say-on-Pay proposal after revealing nearly $ 22 million in the CEO.
In 2025, three of the eight miners faced “remarkable criticisms” in their executive pay proposals, researchers reported.
The cointelegraph contacted the riot platforms for commenting but did not receive an immediate response.
Performance stock units and vesting
On the positive side, six out of the eight Miners have adopted performance stock units (PSU) with multi-year vesting tied to share price target or relative total return of the shareholder, and most companies support annual Say-on-Pay votes for increasing responsibility.
PSUs are a type of equity compensation where executives receive company stock, but if certain performance conditions are met.
Vaneck It has been suggested that miners are focused on tying cost bonuses at each coin mine, incorporating steps to capital efficiency such as returning to investing capital, and strengthening performance requirements for equity awards with multi-year vesting.
“While Bitcoin miners are older in large -scale infrastructure operators, their executive compensation programs should also emerge,” they concluded.
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