Bitcoin (BTC) Miners Are Expected to be Profitable in December, Jefferies Says

12/19/2024 18:40
Bitcoin (BTC) Miners Are Expected to be Profitable in December, Jefferies Says

Bitcoin (BTC) miners are expected to be profitable in December as the world's largest cryptocurrency hit record highs earlier this week, Jefferies says.

November was a strong month for the miners as the rally in bitcoin outpaced the rise in the network hashrate, the report said.

Dec 19, 2024, 11:26 a.m. UTC

BTC's rise to record highs earlier this week is expected to allow miners to extend their November profitability into December, according to a report by investment bank Jefferies on Wednesday.

Bitcoin mining economics improved in November as the average price of bitcoin was 31% higher while the average network hashrate rose by almost 4%, the report said.

The hashrate, representing the total computing power dedicated to a network, is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.

"Average daily revenue per exahash was $55,649, which represented a 20.7% month-on-month increase," analysts Jonathan Petersen and Jan Aygul wrote.

U.S.-listed miners mined less bitcoin in November than the previous month, the bank said. Still, they mined more on a "network basis," accounting for 24.7% of the total network.

The bank noted that uptime improved, which could be partly due to colder temperatures as winter approaches.

MARA Holdings (MARA) mined the most bitcoin, with 907 in November, and CleanSpark (CLSK) was second, with 622, the report noted.

MARA's installed hashrate remained the largest in the sector at 46.1 exahashes per second (EH/s), followed by CleanSpark at 33.7 EH/s, the report added.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Economics Continued to Improve in December, JPMorgan Says

Will Canny

Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He's now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.

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