Bitcoin miners saw a boost in daily revenue and gross profit for the second consecutive month in December, reaching their highest levels since April, according to a research report from JPMorgan published on Monday.
The increase in mining profitability was driven by Bitcoin’s ongoing price rally, which outpaced the growth in network hashrate. JPMorgan’s analysis estimated that miners earned an average of $57,100 per exahash per second (EH/s) in daily block reward revenue in December, marking a 10% increase from November.
However, analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce pointed out that revenue and gross profit per EH/s are still significantly below pre-halving levels, with declines of 43% and 52%, respectively.
The network’s hashrate grew by 6% in December, reaching an average of 779 EH/s, reflecting the growing computational power used to mine and process Bitcoin transactions. Additionally, mining difficulty rose by 7%, now 27% higher than before the reward halving event in April.
The hashrate increased by 54% in 2024, although this was slower than the 103% growth observed in 2023.
The combined market capitalization of the 14 publicly traded Bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan decreased by 23% to $28 billion in December, following a 52% increase in November.
TeraWulf (WULF) emerged as the top performer among these miners, with its stock surging 136% in 2024, outperforming Bitcoin’s 120% gain during the same period.
