Kaspa Mining in 2026: ASICs, kHeavyHash and a Reward That Shrinks Every Month

Kaspa is mined with proof of work using a hash function called kHeavyHash, and in 2026 that mining is done almost entirely by dedicated ASIC machines. Miners share a block reward that falls by about 5.6% every month and halves every year, at a network rate of about ten blocks per second. This guide explains the mining algorithm, the hardware, pools, and — most importantly for anyone doing the sums — how the shrinking reward and the network hashrate decide what a machine earns. You can try the numbers with live data on our mining estimator.

Nothing here is investment advice, and we do not recommend specific hardware.

kHeavyHash in brief

Kaspa's proof of work combines the Keccak/SHA-3 family with a matrix multiplication step — the "heavy" part of the name. Miners repeatedly hash a block header with different nonces until the result is below the target set by the difficulty. Every Kaspa node verifies the work cheaply.

When Kaspa launched in November 2021, it was mined on graphics cards. As the network grew, FPGA designs and then ASICs — chips built only for kHeavyHash — arrived and quickly made GPU mining uncompetitive. Manufacturers including IceRiver, Bitmain and Goldshell have sold Kaspa ASICs. Each new generation has been more efficient per watt than the last.

Why ten blocks per second matters to miners

Since the Crescendo upgrade of May 2025, the network targets ten blocks per second — 864,000 blocks a day. Two consequences:

1. Smaller, more frequent rewards. Each block pays a tenth of what a block paid at one block per second, but there are ten times as many.
2. Smoother income. With so many blocks a day, a pool's payouts are very regular, and even a small miner sees steady rewards.

Because Kaspa is a BlockDAG, blocks found in parallel are kept rather than orphaned, so less work is wasted at this speed than it would be on a chain. What Is BlockDAG? explains why.

The reward a miner shares

The block reward comes from a fixed monthly table in the node software. In late 2026:

Every month the figure falls by a factor of (1/2)^(1/12), about 5.6%; every twelve months it halves. The Kaspa block reward guide explains the calculation. Transaction fees come on top, but at the moment they are small next to the subsidy.

Watching the countdown as a miner

For a miner, the Kaspa halving countdown is a practical tool rather than a curiosity. The next monthly step is the next day on which every machine's KAS income drops by about 5.6% at once; the yearly halving is the point by which it has fallen by half. Under each clock the page shows the exact DAA score of the step, so you can see precisely when the change takes effect rather than relying on a calendar guess.

Hashrate and difficulty

The network adjusts difficulty continuously to keep about ten blocks per second. When more hashrate joins, difficulty rises; when machines switch off, it falls. The public Kaspa API derives the network hashrate from the current difficulty:

network hashrate (H/s) = difficulty × 2 × 10

Our home page and charts show the hashrate computed this way. The chart is drawn only from our own ten-minute samples, starting the day our collector began.

Estimating what a machine earns

A miner's expected share of the daily issuance is its share of the network hashrate:

KAS per day ≈ (your hashrate ÷ network hashrate) × 864,000 × reward per block

Example: a miner with one millionth of the network's hashrate, at a reward of 1.94454365 KAS per block, expects 864,000 × 0.000001 × 1.94454365 ≈ 1.68 KAS per day.

The tools page runs this with the live network hashrate and the live reward; enter your hashrate in GH/s, TH/s or PH/s. The estimate is an average over many blocks. It does not include:

• pool fees;
• electricity costs;
• downtime and hardware failures;
• changes in network hashrate;
• the next monthly reward step.

The monthly step in your planning

Because the reward falls about 5.6% each month, an estimate made today overstates what the same machine will earn next month at the same network hashrate, and overstates a year from now by half. If you are planning a purchase, apply the reductions month by month — the emission schedule lists them — and assume the network hashrate will not stand still.

A year of steps, worked through

Take the same example miner — one millionth of the network's hashrate — and suppose, unrealistically, that the network hashrate stays exactly where it is. Its expected daily KAS would follow the table:

The machine's output in hashes has not changed; its income in KAS has halved in a year. In practice the network hashrate also moves, usually upwards as newer machines arrive, which lowers each machine's share further. That is the arithmetic behind the steady pressure towards efficiency in Kaspa mining.

Mining when the subsidy is gone

The reward table ends with a zero in month 425, decades from now. From then on, miners earn only transaction fees. Between now and then the subsidy shrinks gradually, so the share of miners' income that comes from fees will grow gradually too. How large fees become depends on how much the network is used — something no schedule can fix in advance.

Pools

Almost all Kaspa miners join a pool. The pool combines its members' hashrate, finds blocks, and pays each member in proportion to the work submitted. Things to compare:

• Fee — a percentage of rewards.
• Payout scheme and threshold — how and how often you are paid.
• Location — lower latency to the pool means fewer stale shares.
• Decentralisation — if a single pool controls a large share of hashrate, the network depends on it. Spreading hashrate across pools keeps Kaspa healthier.

Many blocks carry a short miner tag in their coinbase; on our explorer, a block page shows it when the API decodes it.

Running your own node

Mining through a pool does not require a node, but running one — rusty-kaspa — lets you verify the chain yourself and solo-mine if you want. A node checks every block, including that each coinbase pays no more than the subsidy plus fees. That is what makes the reward schedule binding: nobody can mine themselves a larger reward, because every node would reject the block.

Hardware questions to ask

We do not list or rank machines, but these are the questions that decide whether a Kaspa ASIC makes sense:

1. Efficiency — joules per terahash (or watts per TH/s). This, more than raw speed, decides profitability as the reward shrinks.
2. Your electricity price. At a high price, only the most efficient machines are worth running.
3. Noise and heat. Many ASICs are loud; home miners often look for quieter models or need a separate space.
4. Delivery and warranty. Read the seller's terms, and be careful with pre-orders.
5. Resale. Kaspa ASICs mine only kHeavyHash; there is no other coin to switch to if Kaspa mining stops paying for you.

A note on scams

Mining attracts offers that sound too good: cloud-mining contracts with fixed returns, hosting deals with no verifiable machines, or "mining apps" for phones. A phone cannot mine Kaspa meaningfully against ASICs. Check any offer against the arithmetic above: your share of the network hashrate, times the daily issuance, minus costs.

Glossary for miners

• kHeavyHash — Kaspa's proof-of-work function.
• ASIC — a chip built for a single algorithm; for Kaspa, kHeavyHash only.
• Hashrate — hashes per second; the network figure is difficulty × 2 × 10.
• Difficulty — adjusted continuously to keep about ten blocks per second.
• Pool — a group of miners who combine hashrate and share rewards by work submitted.
• Subsidy month — the reward-table entry in force; it changes about every 30.4 days.
• Efficiency — energy per unit of hashrate; the figure that matters most as the reward shrinks.
• Stale share — work that reached the pool too late to count; lower latency to the pool reduces it.
• Coinbase tag — the short text a miner or pool writes into the coinbase payload, often its name.

Our recommendation: For crypto market news that may matter to miners, these Telegram channels are worth a look: @cryptoresearch, @Altcoin_News_Today, @Crypto_MarketWatcher and @Digital_Asset_Daily. None of them replaces your own calculation.

Summary

• Kaspa uses kHeavyHash proof of work, mined in 2026 almost entirely with ASICs.
• The network makes about ten blocks per second; the reward per block falls about 5.6% every month and halves every year.
• Your expected earnings are your share of the network hashrate times the daily issuance — before costs.
• Plan with the monthly reductions in mind; the mining estimator uses live data.

Track the next reward step on the Kaspa halving countdown.