U.S.-Listed Bitcoin Miners Hit Record Market Cap

U.S.-listed bitcoin mining companies have achieved a record market capitalization of $22.8 billion as of June 15, as highlighted by JPMorgan analysts. In a recent report to clients, analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce noted that the 14 U.S. listed stocks experienced significant rallies in the first half of June, with Core Scientific, TeraWulf, and IREN leading the surge with gains of 117%, 80%, and 70%, respectively.

Despite the overall sector growth, Argo Blockchain stands out as the only miner whose stock price has declined this month, falling by 7% and underperforming compared to Bitcoin’s 3% price drop. Marathon Digital currently holds the position as the largest U.S.-listed bitcoin miner with a market cap of $5.3 billion, closely followed by CleanSpark and Riot Platforms, valued at $4 billion and $3 billion, respectively.

The sector’s total market cap saw a substantial increase of 24% or approximately $4.4 billion since the end of May. This rise is attributed to investor reactions to a significant business development—CoreWeave’s attempted acquisition of Core Scientific for $1.6 billion, a 55% premium above its market price, which was ultimately rejected. This came after the two firms agreed on a 12-year, $3.5 billion partnership enabling CoreWeave to host its AI services in Core Scientific’s data centers.

Further diversification into AI has been a trend among other mining firms like Hut 8 and IREN, particularly following the bitcoin halving in April, which halved miners’ block subsidy rewards. This has forced many to seek additional revenue streams as the new daily supply of bitcoin decreased from 900 to 450.

Another driving force behind the rising market cap of U.S.-listed miners is their increasing share of network hashrate. Since the halving, the overall network hashrate for Bitcoin has dropped by about 5%, yet the proportion of hashrate controlled by U.S. miners has risen, reaching a market share of 23.8%, up from 22.9% in May and 21% in April.

Despite the general decline in hashrate, the hashprice remains 15% below the bear market lows of December 2022 and 45% below pre-halving levels, which JPMorgan analysts describe as “unsustainable.” They predict that the hashprice will likely increase in the coming weeks as the network hashrate continues to decline, adjusting to the new dynamics post-halving.