MARA Holdings and CleanSpark Outperform BTC, While HPC-Exposed Miners Struggle, Says JPMorgan
Bitcoin mining stocks showed mixed performance in the first two weeks of April, with companies focused solely on Bitcoin mining, such as MARA Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK), outperforming their peers exposed to high-performance computing (HPC), according to a report by JPMorgan (JPM) released Wednesday.
During this period, only MARA and CleanSpark managed to outperform Bitcoin (BTC), while miners with exposure to HPC, such as Bitdeer (BTDR), TeraWulf (WULF), IREN (IREN), and Riot Platforms (RIOT), underperformed. HPC is leveraged in applications like AI, adding additional layers of complexity and exposure to the broader tech sector.
JPMorgan analysts pointed out that while March was a strong month for U.S.-listed miners, with the sector adding 15 exahashes per second (EH/s) of capacity and increasing token production, the first half of April was less favorable. The bank attributed this to network hashrate growth outpacing the expansion of U.S. operators, combined with a decline in the average Bitcoin price during the same period, which put pressure on mining economics.
“Hashrate growth outstripped U.S. operator capacity expansion, and the decline in the average Bitcoin price during April’s first half has impacted mining profitability,” wrote analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce.
JPMorgan estimated that U.S.-listed miners are currently trading at 1.2 times their proportional share of the four-year block reward opportunity, marking the lowest level in over two years.
In the first two weeks of April, miners earned about $41,500 in daily block reward revenue per EH/s, a 12% drop from March. The report also noted that the network hashrate had risen by 85 EH/s month-to-date, bringing the total to an average of 900 EH/s. The hashrate represents the combined computational power used in mining and transaction processing on a proof-of-work blockchain, serving as a key indicator of industry competition and mining difficulty.
The total market capitalization of the 13 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners tracked by the bank declined by 2%, reaching $16.9 billion in April.
