Bitcoin Mining Becomes More Profitable in December, According to JPMorgan

Bitcoin (BTC) mining profitability has continued to strengthen in December, with the hashprice—a key metric representing daily revenue for miners—increasing by 5% since the end of November, according to a JPMorgan (JPM) research note released Monday.

This improvement comes as Bitcoin’s price rally has outpaced the growth in the network’s hashrate, which measures mining difficulty and competition among miners. The network hashrate has climbed 6% so far this month, averaging 773 exahashes per second (EH/s), the bank reported.

“Daily block reward revenue for miners has reached $57,300 per EH/s during the first half of December,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote. They noted that this marks the highest level of earnings in seven months, though it remains 40% below levels seen prior to Bitcoin’s most recent halving event.

The combined hashrate of 14 publicly traded U.S. mining companies tracked by JPMorgan has risen by almost 94% this year, reaching 222 EH/s and accounting for roughly 29% of the global network’s processing power.

Despite operational progress, the total market capitalization of these miners fell by 4% in December, representing a $1.5 billion decline, after having surged by over 50% in the wake of the U.S. presidential election.

JPMorgan estimates that these publicly listed miners are currently valued at approximately twice their share of the four-year block reward pool, reflecting heightened investor expectations and optimism surrounding their future earnings potential.