The combined market capitalization of the 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin (BTC) mining companies monitored by JPMorgan saw a decrease of 25% in March, marking the third-steepest monthly decline recorded, according to the bank’s report released on Tuesday.
Only one company, Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG), managed to exceed bitcoin’s performance last month. For the second consecutive month, miners heavily invested in high-performance computing (HPC) have underperformed compared to those focusing solely on mining.
“Current valuations are at their lowest relative to block rewards since the FTX collapse in Fall 2023,” commented analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce.
The average network hashrate saw a slight increase during the month, reaching 816 exahashes per second (EH/s). This metric represents the total computational power utilized for mining and processing transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, serving as an indicator of industry competition and mining difficulty.
Both mining revenue and profitability experienced declines.
“We estimate that bitcoin miners generated an average of $47,300 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue in March, a 13% drop from February,” noted the report. The gross profit from daily block rewards fell by 22% month-over-month to $23,000 per EH/s.
Stronghold Digital Mining outperformed its peers with only a 2% decline, whereas Cipher Mining (CIFR) significantly lagged behind, suffering a 45% drop.
Find out more: Bitcoin Network Hashrate Increased Slightly in March Amid Weakened Mining Economics