TL;DR
- A report from VanEck revealed that executives at major U.S. Bitcoin mining firms doubled their salaries in a year, with multi-million dollar packages drawing investor backlash.
- Riot Platforms stands out as the most controversial case: its CEO, Fred Thiel, received $79.3 million in stock awards in 2024, and the company allocated 73% of its market cap increase to executive pay.
- Six out of eight miners have adopted performance-based stock plans and will now submit their executive pay packages to annual shareholder votes.
Executives at the leading Bitcoin mining companies in the United States are under growing pressure from shareholders, who question both the size and structure of their compensation packages.
A report from VanEck showed that despite aggressive pay levels, the average approval rate for these policies hovers at just 64%. That figure contrasts sharply with the 90% average seen in large publicly traded companies listed in the S&P 500 and Russell 3000 indexes.
The study reviewed executive pay data from eight publicly listed mining firms, including Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings, and Core Scientific. It found that average executive compensation doubled in a year, rising from $6.6 million in 2023 to $14.4 million in 2024. The bulk of these payouts came in the form of stock awards, which made up 89% of total compensation this year. This structure dilutes shareholders and, according to VanEck, often fails to link pay with long-term value creation.
VanEck Suggests Miners Tie Bonuses to Cost Per Bitcoin Mined
One of the clearest examples is Fred Thiel, CEO of Riot Platforms, who was awarded $79.3 million in stock in 2024 — nearly double the amount granted to the top executives at MARA and Core Scientific, and several times more than peers at other mining firms. Additionally, Riot allocated 73% of its market cap growth to executive compensation, while companies like TeraWulf and Core Scientific limited that figure to around 2%.
Although the disparity remains, six of the eight mining firms surveyed have implemented performance-based stock plans that require meeting share price or profitability targets before vesting. It’s also becoming standard practice for these companies to submit pay packages to annual shareholder votes. VanEck further recommends that miners link bonuses to the cost of Bitcoin mined and adopt capital efficiency metrics to reduce the gap between pay and actual performance.
The report concludes that as these firms evolve into large-scale infrastructure operators, they must professionalize and moderate their executive compensation models to avoid conflict with investors and ensure financial sustainability
