Bitcoin Miners Gain Record Hash Rate as JP Morgan Gives Nod to Sector Ahead of US Election

Top U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners have increased their ownership of the global network hash rate, pushing their share to new heights this year, according to a new report. 

Roughly 14 publicly-listed Bitcoin miners in the U.S. control a record 28.9% of the network, analysts at investment banking giant J.P. Morgan wrote in an investor note on Wednesday.

The hash rate refers to the amount of computational power used to mint new coins and keep the Bitcoin network secure. 

It comes as top U.S. crypto mining stocks “rallied over the first two weeks of October,” with those companies being valued lower than usual compared to their potential rewards in Bitcoin, making them an attractive investment ahead of the upcoming election next month, the bank said.

Investors can gain exposure to the crypto by investing in companies like miners instead of investing directly into the asset class, which has been the preferred choice among some larger players before the advent of U.S.-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds this year.

The analysts said the increased share in hash rate in the U.S. was “encouraging and speaks to the efficiency and funding advantages of some public operators.”

It comes after the bank noted last month that while profits were getting squeezed for public Bitcoin miners, their dominance of the biggest coin’s hash rate was growing.

Top U.S. Bitcoin miners—CleanSpark, IREn, and Marathon Digital, to name just three—are all listed on U.S. stock exchanges. 

In the Bitcoin world, expensive machines make hash computations—known as hashing—to turn data into a fixed-length string of characters. 

The process is needed to do things on the Bitcoin network, like create private keys so users can make transactions. 

The aggregate hash rate for the world’s largest crypto was previously concentrated in China. Following the country’s ban on Bitcoin mining in May 2021, companies were forced to move elsewhere to set up their operations.

Since then, North America has become the most dominant player in the Bitcoin mining space, including some parts of Asia.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair