Why GPU Miners Are Circling Quai Right Now
GPU miners still hunt for profitable coins after Ethereum's merge. When Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake three years back, miners had to find something else to do with their GPUs. Ergo, Ravencoin, and Kaspa became the top choices for keeping those mining rigs running. Each time, they made less money.
Quai Network uses a sharded blockchain and Proof-of-Entropy-Minima to keep mining consistent across all its chains. QUAI zone chain miners can now earn LTC, DOGE, and BCH on parent chains while using their current hardware setup with no need to change anything. The idea of getting paid from two sources is appealing. But what's really interesting is SOAP, the Subsidized Open-market Acquisition Protocol, which started in December 2025. It uses all the rewards from the parent-chain coinbase to buy QUAI on the open market.
The protocol changes parent-chain mining rewards into QUAI tokens by using automated market buys. This stops miners from selling off their rewards right away. During the Golden Age testnet, more than 42,000 GPUs were used on 2,000 nodes. Even with QUAI priced at just $0.039 and a market cap of $39 million, the testnet still sees thousands of miners actively participating. New people are wondering if they can make enough money to cover their electricity costs, not if the tech works.
Merged Mining Economics, Broken Down
Most miners find this part confusing, so let's break it down.
Quai Network runs on several linked chains working together. Think of the network as starting with main chains that split into regional sections, and those sections then break down into local areas. Miners send their work to the local chains. When miners solve a Litecoin puzzle, they also solve one for Dogecoin. If the solution meets the difficulty requirements of each blockchain, then both blockchains will consider it valid. One try, several chains. That's merged mining.
Then SOAP comes in. LTC or DOGE from merged mining goes to system-managed addresses instead of the miner's own wallet. When a Quai miner gets BCH, the system changes these assets into QUAI using regular market trades. The system either burns QUAI tokens bought or gives them to stakers as rewards. CoinMarketCap reports that the SOAP codebase has over 20,000 lines.
With $500,000 staked, SOAP's daily QUAI buys of $20,000 come out to about 1,460% APR. But if TVL goes up to $24.3 million with the same daily purchase, that APR drops to about 30%. That's a big change. This drop is easy to guess and good to plan for before you invest in hardware.
Miners get QUAI token rewards when they find blocks on their local chains. The revenue from merged mining Litecoin and Dogecoin is used to fund SOAP buybacks instead of paying miners directly. This is key for anyone planning their income.
Hardware Lineup: Quai vs. Kaspa vs. Ergo
About Kaspa - it now works best with ASICs because of its kHeavyHash algorithm, pushing out most GPU miners. Ergo's Autolykos v2 still works with GPUs, and the network hashrate hasn't changed much, even though block reward reductions are happening as planned. Quai crypto's PoEM algorithm works with GPU mining, and its quick block time of 1.1 seconds means miners get paid often without long waits.
A setup with six RTX 4070 Tis uses about 900W. If you're paying $0.08/kWh, expect to spend around $52 each month, which makes it a good starting setup. Miners are saying they're making enough QUAI to pay their electricity bills and even pocket a little profit, based on today's prices and current mining difficulty. How much you make on other GPU-mineable chains can change a lot based on the network.
What about Kaspa? You'll need to spend around $3,000 per ASIC to be competitive, so it's not great for GPUs anymore.
QUAI's low liquidity and limited exchange listings make trading difficult. The daily volume is around $230,000, and the QUAI/USDT pair on MEXC makes up about $78,500 of it. Large QUAI miners require sufficient liquidity channels to liquidate holdings without triggering significant price slippage. Bitget exchange and MEXC offer the deepest liquidity for converting freshly mined QUAI into stablecoins.
Setting Up a Quai Mining Operation From Scratch
Go to quai.com for the real docs and node software. Watch out for fake mirrors.
First, install the go-quai client on a computer that has at least 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. Before you start, the node needs to sync up with the main chain and the chains for your chosen region and zone. The initial sync usually takes 6 to 12 hours depending on your internet speed and network conditions. Get the miner software straight from the official quai-gpu-miner repository. Set it up using your zone chain address and the stratum pool endpoint you plan to use. Then configure your merged mining settings. Miners can now set up LTC, DOGE, and BCH parent chain info right in the settings. If you skip these, you're losing out on SOAP rewards.
Do you need to run full Litecoin and Dogecoin nodes to merge mine? Stratum setup lets mining pools handle blockchain tasks for miners, so they always have something to do. Miners connect to a Quai-ready pool that runs the merged mining operation, and the pool submits valid parent-chain blocks for everyone. Before starting, double-check that your hashrate meets the pool's minimums and that you've entered the correct zone chain address.
Where Miners Lose Money (and Don't Realize It)
The most expensive mistake? Mining rewards sent to the wrong address.
Quai Network runs a dual-token system. QUAI uses account-based addresses starting with 0x and is EVM-compatible. QI uses UTXO-based addresses with fixed denominations for privacy. If miners accidentally use a QI address instead of a QUAI address, payouts won't go through and recovery gets complicated. Double-check the address prefix before starting any mining operation.
Second common error: ignoring chain selection. Quai crypto has a sharded structure, so mining difficulty and rewards change based on the chain miners pick. When many miners focus on the same chains, competition drives individual earnings down. Miners who check how hash rate is spread across zone chains usually see better daily profits.
Third: treating SOAP staking APR as guaranteed income. That 1,460% figure floating around crypto Twitter assumes $500,000 TVL and $20,000 daily SOAP buys. More staking deposits drive APR down fast. Returns drop to 30% when total locked value reaches $24.3 million. Miners who entered SOAP staking in late 2025 locked in early rates; new entrants in March 2026 face a very different calculus. Quai Network's SOAP system burns tokens over time, reducing circulating supply. Those who get in early on rate structure changes usually do better than those who join later.
Fourth: not comparing chain profitability before committing hardware. GPU miners should check whether Quai's returns justify dedicating rigs over other proof-of-work networks at current reward rates. Profits shift as price moves and network difficulty changes, so running the numbers before setup matters.
Before you start, download the go-quai client, sync a node on a test zone chain, and check whether electricity costs align with your expected mining returns. Quai Network token combines merged mining with a SOAP buyback, letting GPU miners support the network while earning. With a daily volume of $230,000, liquidity is low, so getting involved now could be an early entry opportunity. The mining works. The protocol works. Whether the market catches up to the mechanics is still a mystery.
