Bitcoin miners saw a positive trend in daily revenue and gross profit for the second straight month in December, marking the highest levels since April, as per a research report from JPMorgan released on Monday.
The report attributed the rise in mining profitability to Bitcoin’s price rally, which continued to outpace the growth of the network’s hashrate. JPMorgan estimated that miners earned an average of $57,100 per exahash per second (EH/s) in daily block reward revenue in December, reflecting a 10% increase from November.
However, analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce noted that despite the growth, revenue and profit per EH/s are still significantly lower than pre-halving levels, with declines of 43% and 52%, respectively.
In terms of network activity, the hashrate grew by 6% in December, reaching an average of 779 EH/s, indicating an increase in the overall computational power used to mine and process Bitcoin transactions. Mining difficulty also rose by 7%, now sitting 27% higher than before the reward halving event in April.
For the year, the network’s hashrate rose by 54%, a slower pace compared to the 103% increase seen in 2023.
The market capitalization of the 14 publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies tracked by JPMorgan dropped 23% in December, to $28 billion, following a 52% increase in November.
TeraWulf (WULF) stood out among these companies, with its stock rising 136% in 2024, outperforming Bitcoin’s 120% increase over the same period.