Bitcoin Mining Profitability Rose in December for Second Month in a Row: JPMorgan

Bitcoin Mining Profitability Rose in December for Second Month in a Row: JPMorgan

In December, Bitcoin (BTC) miners experienced a significant uptick in daily revenue and gross profit for the second consecutive month, marking the highest levels since April, according to a recent JPMorgan (JPM) research report. This surge in mining profitability came as Bitcoin’s rally outpaced the growth of the network's hashrate.

JPMorgan’s analysts estimate that in December, Bitcoin miners earned an average of $57,100 per exahash per second (EH/s) in daily block reward revenue, representing a 10% increase compared to November. However, despite the gains, the revenue and gross profit per EH/s still remain 43% and 52% lower, respectively, compared to pre-halving levels.

The report also highlighted that the Bitcoin network’s hashrate grew by 6% in December, reaching an average of 779 EH/s. The hashrate is a key metric that measures the combined computational power used to mine Bitcoin and process transactions on the blockchain. Despite the growth, mining difficulty also rose by 7% from November, now sitting 27% higher than before the reward halving event in April.

Looking at the broader mining landscape, JPMorgan noted that the hashrate increase in 2024 was 54%, a slower pace than the 103% growth seen in 2023. Additionally, the total market capitalization of the 14 publicly listed Bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan declined by 23% to $28 billion in December, following a strong 52% increase in November.

Interestingly, TeraWulf (WULF) emerged as the only Bitcoin miner to outperform Bitcoin itself in 2024, posting an impressive 136% gain, compared to Bitcoin’s 120% rise.

While mining profitability has improved recently, the gap between current earnings and pre-halving levels indicates that Bitcoin miners continue to face challenges as the network’s difficulty increases.