Bitcoin (BTC) miners experienced a surge in daily revenue and gross profit for the second month in a row in December, reaching levels not seen since April, according to a research report by JPMorgan (JPM) released on Monday.
The profitability of mining operations increased as the value of the world’s largest cryptocurrency continued to rise at a faster rate than the growth of the network’s hashrate, the report stated.
JPMorgan’s analysis indicated that bitcoin miners generated an average of $57,100 per exahash per second (EH/s) in daily block reward revenue last month, representing a 10% increase from November.
However, despite the recent uptick, analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce pointed out that “daily revenue and gross profit per EH/s still remain 43% and 52% lower than pre-halving levels, respectively.”
The network’s hashrate grew by 6% in December, reaching an average of 779 EH/s. Hashrate refers to the total computational power used for mining and processing transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain.
Mining difficulty also saw a 7% increase from the previous month, now standing at 27% higher than levels before the reward halving event in April, as per the report. The hashrate grew by 54% in 2024, showing a slower pace compared to the 103% gain seen in 2023.
Among the 14 publicly listed bitcoin miners tracked by the bank, the total market cap decreased by 23% to $28 billion in December, following a 52% rise in November.
TeraWulf (WULF) emerged as the top-performing miner last year, with a remarkable 136% increase in value, surpassing the 120% gain of Bitcoin itself, as noted in the report.
For more insights: Bitcoin Miners Are Expected to be Profitable in December, Jefferies Says