Share this article
Bitcoin Mining Was More Profitable in February Than January: Jefferies
Publicly traded North American mining companies produced a smaller share of new bitcoin last month, slipping to 17.5% of the total network, the report said.
Updated Mar 27, 2024, 12:20 p.m. Published Mar 27, 2024, 12:17 p.m.
- Bitcoin mining was more profitable in February as the cryptocurrency rose 15%.
- Even though the hashrate has nearly doubled from a year ago, publicly traded miners have lost market share, Jefferies said.
- The bank cut its price target for Marathon Digital to $24 and raised Argo Blockchain to $1.50.
Bitcoin mining was more profitable in February than in January as the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency rose 15% while the network hashrate increased at a slower rate of 9%, investment bank Jefferies said in a research report on Monday.
Publicly listed North American mining companies produced a smaller share of bitcoin compared with the previous month, slipping to 17.5% of the total network from 19%, as new hashrate came online from other sources, the report said. Hashrate refers to the total combined computational power that is being used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, such as Bitcoin.
“From a year ago, the network hashrate has nearly doubled, but the publicly traded miners have lost market share,” analysts Jonathan Petersen and Amanda Santillo wrote.
Marathon Digital (MARA) had previously used third-party providers to host its machines rather than building its own infrastructure, the report noted, but the company has changed strategy and is buying out some of the hosting services, a “defensive move ahead of the halving,” and a strategy Jefferies says it supports.
“The scale of MARA is a competitive advantage when it comes to buying more ASICs to grow and maintain market share,” the authors wrote.
The bank maintained its hold rating on Marathon Digital shares, and cut its price target to $24 from $30 to “reflect the downtime at the Applied Digital sites, which has weighed on our confidence of future uptime assumptions.”
It increased its price target on hold-rated Argo Blockchain (ARBK) to $1.50 from $1.20 to reflect the higher bitcoin price. “With less capex dedicated to mining facility development ARBK should have cash to buy additional miners and increase hashrate more quickly,” the bank said.
Read more: Bitcoin Miners Need to Be Proactive to Hold Their Positions After Halving: Fidelity Digital Assets
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Turkey's Paribu Buys CoinMENA in $240M Deal, Expanding Into High-Growth Crypto Markets
With the acquisition, Paribu gains regulatory foothold in Bahrain and Dubai and access to the region's fast-growing crypto user base.
What to know:
- Paribu acquires Bahrain- and Dubai-based CoinMENA for up to $240 million.
- Deal marks Turkey’s biggest fintech acquisition and first international crypto M&A, the firm said.
- The move taps into the MENA region’s fast-growing crypto user base and supportive regulatory hubs.
Top Stories
