According to a JPMorgan Chase report, Bitcoin’s network hashrate did inch higher in March, but declining prices were putting pressure on mining profitability.
The JPMorgan Chase report states that in the first half of March, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate increased by two exahashes per second (EH/s), averaging 811 EH/s.
The report, authored by analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce, elaborated that while the overall collective computing power that miners spent was slightly up in March, their profits were down as the price of Bitcoin fell by around 10%.
While miners maintained their network share, their profits suffered. They earned about $48,300 a day for every unit of computing power they had, but that was 11% less than in February.
In contrast to April 2024, when Bitcoin’s rewards were cut in half–a process commonly known as halving — their profits declined 52%.
In addition, Investing.com noted that over the past year, the combined hashrate of U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan has almost doubled and now accounts for almost 29% of the worldwide Bitcoin network.
The bank’s analysis also showed that the total market capitalization of the 14 U.S.-listed mining companies it tracks sank 13 percent over the month, erasing about $3 billion in value.
Among those miners, Argo Blockchain (ARGO) led the pack with 1% gains, whereas Cipher Mining dropped down 25%.
On March 6, JPMorgan Chase had rejected the idea of XRP, Solana and Cardano’s inclusion in the U.S. strategic crypto saying it “would be difficult”.
Further, the bank had also claimed that Bitcoin and Ethereum were the only two dominant assets in the cryptocurrency market.
