JPMorgan: Bitcoin Miners Still Struggle With Falling Profits Even as Competition Eases

The Bitcoin network’s hashrate, a measure of mining competition, fell for a second consecutive month in December, according to a report from JPMorgan (JPM) released Monday.

Analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote that the monthly average network hashrate, a proxy for industry competition, dropped 30 EH/s, or 3%, month-over-month to 1,045 EH/s. The hashrate measures the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, expressed in exahashes per second.

Mining profitability declined alongside the lower competition. JPMorgan estimated that miners earned an average of $38,700 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue last month, down 7% from November and 32% year-over-year — the lowest level on record. Daily block reward gross profit also fell 9% to $17,100 per EH/s.

While the report did not detail the causes, falling bitcoin prices since October likely contributed to the squeeze, adding to pressure from the most recent halving and rising energy costs.

Not all indicators were negative. The combined market capitalization of 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners and data center operators tracked by JPMorgan rose to $48 billion by the end of 2025, up 73% for the year. Hut 8 (HUT) posted the strongest gain last month with a 2% increase, while CleanSpark (CLSK) declined 33%.

Over the full year, nine of the 14 companies outperformed bitcoin, led by IREN (IREN) and Cipher Mining (CIFR), although only two exceeded bitcoin in December, the report noted.