US Bitcoin mining executives are earning well above their peers in the IT and energy sectors due to generous stock compensation packages, and shareholders are fighting back, according to new findings from asset manager VanEck.

Despite “aggressive compensation packages,” Bitcoin mining firm shareholders are “balking,” VanEck head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel and investment analyst Nathan Frankovitz reported on Thursday. 

The researchers found that average shareholder approval for executive pay packages is just 64% compared to around 90% for S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies. 

“That skepticism appears well-founded. Mining executives continue to grant themselves oversized equity awards that dilute shareholders without reliably linking pay to long-term value creation,” they added. 

The researchers reviewed executive compensation across eight US-listed Bitcoin miners: Bit Digital, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf.

The researchers also found that while Bitcoin miner executives earned an average of $6.6 million in 2023, this has nearly doubled to $14.4 million in 2024, which far exceeds comparable sectors such as energy and tech.

Equity-based compensation

The compensation is predominantly equity-based, with equity awards comprising 79% of total pay in 2023 and 89% in 2024, the report revealed. 

Riot Platforms CEO Fred Thiel received the largest equity award at $79.3 million in 2024. This was nearly double that of MARA Holdings and Core Scientific and multiple times more than the other miner CEOs’ equity grants.

“Miner executive pay practices remain aggressive, equity-heavy, and often weakly aligned with shareholder outcomes.”

Stark disparities in executive pay

The report also highlighted stark disparities in pay-for-performance alignment. While companies like TeraWulf and Core Scientific paid executives just 2% of their market cap growth, Riot Platforms paid 73% of its market cap increase to named executive officers, totaling $230 million in 2024. 

The researchers noted that these disparities echo concerns first raised in 2022, when Riot’s shareholders rejected the firm’s say-on-pay proposal after disclosing almost $22 million in CEO compensation.

In 2025, three of the eight miners faced “striking rebukes” on their executive pay proposals, the researchers reported.  

Cointelegraph contacted Riot Platforms for comment but did not receive an immediate response. 

Performance stock units and vesting

On the positive side, six of the eight miners have adopted performance stock units (PSUs) with multi-year vesting tied to share price targets or relative total shareholder return, and most companies now support annual say-on-pay votes for increased accountability.

PSUs are a type of equity compensation where executives receive company stock, but only if certain performance conditions are met. 

VanEck suggested that miners focus on tying bonuses to cost per coin mined, incorporating capital efficiency measures like return on invested capital, and strengthening performance requirements for equity awards with multi-year vesting.

“As Bitcoin miners mature into large-scale infrastructure operators, their executive compensation programs must evolve as well,” they concluded.