Mining: accounting for equipment and revenue
Published 14/08/2025 · Updated 08/09/2026 · Houssen Issouf Aly, French chartered accountant
Crypto-assets · Companies · Directors
Practical guidance for companies and directors. Revised on 7 September 2026.
Start with the actual activity
Operating machines, using a hosting provider and renting computing power produce different accounting records. Before choosing accounts or valuation methods, establish what the company owns, what it purchases and what it receives.
Three operating arrangements
- Directly operated equipment. The company purchases machines, organises their operation and pays for installation, energy and maintenance.
- Owned equipment hosted by a provider. The company retains ownership while another party operates the machines. The contract should identify the equipment, charges, downtime arrangements, insurance and recovery conditions.
- Purchased computing power or services. A subscription or commercial contract does not prove ownership of machines. Its treatment depends on the rights acquired and the actual service delivered.
For each arrangement, compare the contract with pool statements and wallet movements. Who receives the rewards? Are fees billed separately or deducted before payout? Does a payout threshold leave a balance with the operator? These answers determine the records and controls required.
Main business or additional activity
An established company adding mining should track it separately: directly attributable expenses, a justified allocation of shared costs and the assets involved. An ancillary activity still requires an assessment of the company’s purpose, contracts, tax regime and any applicable obligations. Our mining business page explains how to prepare a project.
Build a monthly record
Usable accounting records connect equipment, production, fees and financial movements. A dashboard showing only the current value of tokens cannot reconstruct a financial year’s activity.
Track equipment from purchase to disposal
Keep invoices, serial numbers, evidence of ownership, installation costs and commissioning dates. Document expected useful life and events that may change it: replacement, lasting breakdown, technical developments or site closure. One depreciation period for every ASIC is not an accounting rule. Deteriorating profitability may also require an assessment of equipment value.
Build a monthly reconciliation
- Export pool statements showing production periods, allocated quantities, fees, pending balances and payouts.
- Match payouts to business wallets using the network, date and transaction identifier.
- Identify internal transfers, conversions, sales and related fees.
- Match euro receipts to bank statements and platform transactions.
- Explain differences and retain the sources used for valuations, with a consistent date and time convention.
Illustrative example: keep quantities and prices consistent
Suppose a statement allocates 0.10 BTC to the company and pays out 0.098 BTC after deducting 0.002 BTC. The deduction needs to be explained using the contract and statement. At a hypothetical price of €50,000 per BTC, these quantities represent €5,000, €4,900 and €100 respectively.
If the 0.098 BTC is later sold at a hypothetical price of €55,000, gross proceeds are €5,390 before selling fees. This example illustrates reconciliation; it does not independently prescribe journal entries, revenue recognition timing or the tax base. Those depend on the contract, entity and applicable accounting framework.
Distinguish profitability from cash flow
The budget should separate initial investment, financing, energy, hosting, maintenance and replacement. Test lower production, higher costs and changing sale prices separately. Retained tokens do not automatically pay euro-denominated bills, while depreciation affects profit without being a monthly cash payment. Your forecast and cash-flow scenarios need to reflect these differences.
Separate activity revenue, disposal and tax regime
Mining taxation depends on who conducts the activity and the applicable tax regime. French administrative guidance for individuals places consideration for participating in the system’s operation within the BNC category. This does not turn a company’s corporate-taxable result into personal income governed by that same regime.
Do not select a micro-BIC regime, allowance or depreciation period from a generic example. Assess the actual activity and eligibility conditions. Likewise, form 2086 concerns disposals within the French individual digital-asset capital gains regime; it is not a universal return for mining receipts.
Year-end checks
- Inventory owned machines and their condition, including equipment hosted abroad.
- Reconcile quantities across wallets, platforms and pool statements, distinguishing balances still due from assets already received.
- Document fees, transactions around the reporting date and valuation methods.
- Assess VAT and territorial questions separately according to the contracts and counterparties.
Frequently asked questions
Must tokens be sold immediately? Holding or selling is a management decision to document, particularly in light of cash needs. Keeping tokens without conversion to euros does not establish that there is no accounting or tax treatment.
Is a wallet export enough? It shows movements, but not necessarily their nature, equipment ownership, fee breakdown or production period. It needs to be matched to contracts and operator statements.
What should we bring to an initial discussion? Your company structure, contracts, equipment inventory, complete sample pool and wallet statements, energy or hosting invoices and project objectives.
Reference: French tax guidance on mining, paragraph 1080. The sources below distinguish individual taxation from Ethereum’s technical evolution.
A technical point to update
Ethereum Mainnet has used proof-of-stake since September 2022. GPU mining of Ethereum no longer describes its current operation. Staking is a different activity requiring its own transaction analysis.