Bitcoin (BTC) mining economics continued to improve in December, with the hashprice—a key measure of daily mining profitability—rising 5% from the end of November, according to a Monday research report by JPMorgan (JPM).
The hashprice gained as Bitcoin’s recent price rally outpaced the growth in the network hashrate, which serves as a measure of competition and mining difficulty within the industry, the report noted. The network’s hashrate has increased 6% month-to-date, averaging 773 exahashes per second (EH/s), the bank said.
“Miners earned approximately $57,300 in daily block reward revenue per EH/s over the first two weeks of December,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote. They highlighted that this is the highest level in seven months, although it remains about 40% below pre-halving levels.
JPMorgan also reported that the combined hashrate of the 14 U.S.-listed miners it tracks has surged nearly 94% year-to-date, reaching 222 EH/s. This accounts for approximately 29% of the global Bitcoin network hashrate.
Despite these operational improvements, the total market capitalization of these miners declined by 4% in December, equivalent to a $1.5 billion drop, after experiencing a more than 50% increase in market value following the U.S. presidential election.
The bank estimated that U.S.-listed miners are currently trading at about two times their proportional share of the four-year block reward opportunity, reflecting high market expectations relative to their network contribution.
