Bitcoin Mining Profits Remain at ‘Near Highs’ as Crypto Miners Rally

Crypto mining companies, including Marathon Digital and Hut 8, outperformed other crypto-linked stocks on Tuesday, as economics for the miners continues to be lucrative.

Shares of crypto miners, which have the highest correlation to the bitcoin price, started November on a bullish tone, tracking gains in the price of the largest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin climbed above $64,000 on Nov. 2, after exiting October near $60,000 levels. Ether, the native token of Ethereum, also rallied to an all-time-high above $4,500.

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate, a measure of mining activity, dropped to about 153 exahashes per second (EH/s) from as high as 185 EH/s in October, according to data analytics firm Glassnode. Generally, if the network hashrate declines while prices are rallying, miners make more profit from mining bitcoin.

With bitcoin’s price climb since the start of the month and the hashrate declining about 18% over the last seven days, bitcoin economics remain “near highs,” Lucas Pipes, an analyst at B Riley, wrote in a research note.

To put the crypto miners’ profitability into context, DA Davidson analyst Christopher Brendler estimated in a recent research note that for miners such as Marathon Digital, the gross margin, or profit after operating costs, will be about 89.6% in 2021 and 90.8% in 2022.

Bitfarms’s stock climbed 12% on Tuesday, after achieving record high bitcoin mining power in October. Shares of Marathon Digital rose 11%, as did Hive Mining. Hut 8 climbed 10% and Riot Blockchain advanced 7% on Tuesday. Argo Blockchain underperformed its rivals, falling about 1.7% even after reporting record revenue in the third quarter.