Bitcoin (BTC) mining stocks tracked by JPMorgan had a strong start to the year, with 12 of 14 companies leading the world’s largest cryptocurrency in the first two weeks, the Wall Street bank said in a report. of research on Thursday.
The network’s hashrate increased 2% month-to-date to an average of 793 exahashes per second (EH/s) and was 51% higher than a year ago, the report said.
The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used in mining and processing transactions in a proof-of-work blockchain and a proxy for industry competition and mining difficulty.
The hashprice, a measure of daily mining profitability, has fallen by less than 1% since the end of December, the bank said, as “hashrate growth has outpaced BTC price movements. “
“Miners earned ~$54,900 in daily block reward revenue per EH/s in the first two weeks of January,” wrote analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce, down 2 % than last month.
The combined hashrate of the 14 US-listed miners in the bank’s coverage has more than doubled in the past 12 months and now covers nearly 30% of the global network.
The total market cap of mining stocks tracked by the bank rose 16%, or $4.5 billion, in the first two weeks of the year. Riot Platforms (RIOT) dominated, with a 32% gain, and Bitdeer fared poorly, with a 4% decline.
Bitcoin is up about 56% since event splitting in April, about 44% since the US presidency election in November, and increased 134% year-on-year, the report said.
Read more: US-Listed Bitcoin Miners Give Up 25% of Global Network in December: Jefferies
