US-listed bitcoin (BTC) miners accounted for 25.3% of the global network in December, Jefferies said in a research report on Thursday.
The bank lowered its price target for MARA Holdings (MARA) to $20 from $24, while maintaining its hold rating on the stock. Shares rose 0.5% to $18.43 in early trading on Friday.
Mining profitability improved in December when the average bitcoin price gained 15%, outpacing the increase in the network’s hashrate, which was 6.5% higher, according to the report.
Hashrate refers to the total combined computing power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain and is an indicator of industry competition and mining difficulty.
Average daily earnings were $59,585 per exahash, an increase of 7.1% from November, Jefferies said.
US-listed mining companies mined 3,602 bitcoins in December compared to 3,404 the previous month, the bank said. Jefferies noted that MARA mined the most bitcoins last month with 890 tokens, followed by CleanSpark (CLSK) with 668.
MARA’s installed hashrate remained the highest in the industry at 53.2 exahashes per second (EH/s). CleanSpark had the second highest hashrate with 39.1 EH/s, the report added.
Read more: Bitcoin mining profitability increased in December for the second month in a row: JPMorgan
