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Bitcoin's Heading to $150K and Quality Mining Stocks Offer a Good Way to Gain Exposure: Bernstein

Bernstein expects the largest cryptocurrency to hit that level during the 2024-2027 cycle, the report said.

Updated Nov 1, 2023, 2:30 p.m. Published Oct 31, 2023, 8:51 a.m.
CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford and Executive Chairman Matt Schultz at the company's CleanBlock facility in College Park, Georgia.
CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford and Executive Chairman Matt Schultz at the company's CleanBlock facility in College Park, Georgia. (Eliza Gkritsi/CoinDesk)

Bitcoin [BTC] is en route to hit $150 and crypto miners are evolving into industrial-scale enterprises, with North America gaining market share over China, broker Bernstein said in a research report Monday as it initiated coverage of the sector in the U.S.

Bernstein says it prefers Riot Platforms (RIOT), outperform rated with a $15.60 price target, and CleanSpark (CLSK), also outperform rated with a $5.30 price target.

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These miners are “market share consolidators with strong operational edge (self-mining model), low cost of production (low power cost), high liquidity and unlevered balance sheets,” wrote analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra.

The broker has a market-perform rating on Marathon Digital (MARA) with an $8.30 price target. It notes that the company is the largest miner but with “sub-par costs (middle of cost curve) and debt, no operational edge (dependent on hosting partners).”

Riot and CleanSpark are “counter-cyclically investing in bitcoin self-mining capacity, unlike some miners who pivoted capacity to AI/high performance computing,” the report said, adding that it expects this “counter-cyclical BTC capacity to pay off” as the cycle turns.

“Bitcoin price cycles have followed 4 year patterns in sync with bitcoin halving,” and for the 2024-27 cycle the world's largest cryptocurrency is expected to “rise to a cycle high of $150,000 by mid 2025,” Bernstein said.

The next bitcoin halving is expected in April 2024 and a “winning bitcoin miner is a high-beta way to gain exposure,” the report added.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Industry Is at a ‘Crucible Moment,’ JPMorgan Says

UPDATE (Nov. 1, 14:19 UTC): Rewrites headline to include BTC price forecast.

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