JPMorgan’s latest research reveals an encouraging trend for Bitcoin (BTC) miners, as December saw a second straight month of rising daily revenue and gross profit.
Miners experienced their peak earnings since April, benefiting from the recent price surge of Bitcoin.
Profitability and Hashrate Trends
The report observed that the rapid increase in Bitcoin’s value has outpaced the growth of the network’s hashrate.
This imbalance has positively impacted miners’ profitability.
On average, Bitcoin miners earned about $57,100 daily per exahash per second (EH/s) in December, marking a 10% jump from the previous month.
Despite this upward trend, analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce cautioned that current earnings per EH/s remain significantly lower than those seen before the last halving event.
They noted that daily revenue and gross profit are down by 43% and 52%, respectively, compared to pre-halving figures.
Hashrate and Difficulty Adjustments
The network’s hashrate climbed by 6% in December, averaging 779 EH/s. This metric reflects the overall computational power applied in mining and processing transactions on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work blockchain.
Since the start of 2024, the hashrate has surged a robust 54%, although this growth has slowed compared to an impressive 103% spike in 2023.
Additionally, mining difficulty rose by 7% last month, now standing 27% higher than it was prior to the April halving event.
Market Performance of Mining Companies
On the market front, the 14 publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies monitored by JPMorgan endured a challenging December, with their total market capitalization dropping by 23% to $28 billion.
This decline follows a remarkable 52% increase in November.
Among these firms, TeraWulf (WULF) distinguished itself by outperforming Bitcoin, achieving a notable 136% gain compared to Bitcoin’s 120% rise over the past year.
Source: Coindesk
