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 cut its price target on 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 Friday.
Mining profitability improved in December as the average price of bitcoin increased by 15%, outpacing the increase in the network hashrate, which was 6.5% higher, the report said.
The hash rate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain and is a proxy for industry competition and mining problems.
Average daily revenue was $59,585 per exahash, up 7.1% from November, Jefferies said.
US-listed mining companies mined 3,602 bitcoin in December, compared with 3,404 the month before, the bank said. Jefferies noted that MARA mined the most bitcoin last month with 890 tokens, followed by CleanSpark (CLSK) with 668.
MARA’s installed hashrate remained the largest in the sector at 53.2 exahashes per second. second (EH/s). CleanSpark had the second highest hash rate at 39.1 EH/s, the report added.
Read more: Bitcoin Mining Profitability Rises in December for Second Month in a Row: JPMorgan
