📈 Bitcoin Miners Surpass $50b Market Cap in 2024

The Bitcoin mining industry experienced a record-breaking year in 2024, with the combined market capitalization of public Bitcoin mining companies surpassing $50b for the first time.

However, increased competition and sector volatility led miners to adopt new strategies, including diversifying their business operations and adopting a "treasury strategy."

Inspired by companies like MicroStrategy, several miners, including MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, Hut 8, and CleanSpark, increased their Bitcoin holdings. They opted to retain a significant portion of mined BTC or use borrowed funds to purchase more.

This approach aimed to strengthen balance sheets, hedge against currency devaluation, and capitalize on potential BTC price appreciation.

Beyond mining, companies diversified into high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors to generate predictable revenue streams and mitigate mining volatility.

For instance, Hive Digital repurposed Nvidia GPUs for AI tasks, achieving higher profitability than traditional crypto mining. Revenue from AI and HPC initiatives became a significant contributor, with Hut 8 and Hive Digital reporting 8% and 7% of their revenues, respectively, from these sectors.

🧡 Bitcoin Gains Ground as Key Hedge in “Debasement Trade”, Says JPMorgan

JPMorgan has identified a growing trend among investors toward the so-called “debasement trade,” with Bitcoin and gold becoming structural components of portfolios as hedges against geopolitical uncertainty, inflation, and concerns over debt debasement.

In a research note released on Jan. 3, the bank emphasized that record capital inflows into crypto markets in 2024 reflect increasing demand for these assets. This trend is fueled by factors such as persistently high government deficits, long-term inflation uncertainty, and heightened geopolitical risks since 2022.

Institutional investors, including figures like Paul Tudor Jones, are turning to Bitcoin and commodities, viewing them as safeguards against fiscal instability. Meanwhile, U.S. state governments and asset managers, such as VanEck, have also begun incorporating Bitcoin as a hedge.

Evidence of this shift can be seen in the sharp rise in BTC futures’ open interest, which grew from $18 billion in January 2024 to over $55b by December, indicating increasing institutional activity. Additionally, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs saw renewed inflows starting in September, with net assets surpassing $100b for the first time in November.

Retail investors are following suit, viewing Bitcoin and gold as similar hedging assets. This convergence of institutional and retail interest suggests that Bitcoin’s role as a hedge is becoming more entrenched.

⛏️ In The News

• Network hashrate briefly reached an all-time high of 1,000 EH/s on Jan. 3, doubling YoY.

• CleanSpark has reached a significant milestone, holding over 10,000 BTC in its treasury, all self-mined in the United States, reflecting a 236% YoY increase.

• In December U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs amassed 51,500 BTC - nearly three times the 13,850 BTC mined that month.

• Bhutan plans to establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve comprising major assets like Bitcoin, Ether, and BNB.

• Metaplanet plans to increase its Bitcoin holdings by 467% to 10,000 BTC in 2025, leveraging loans, equity, and bonds, as it anticipates a potential BTC bull run surpassing $200,000 and aims to drive Bitcoin adoption globally.

• In 2024, the Bitcoin network settled over $19t in transactions, more than double the previous year's volume.

  

🎆 December Updates

🧑‍🔬 Core Scientific

• Core Scientific earned 291 self-mined BTC in December 2024, bringing the total for 2024 to 6,595 and 974 for Q4. Average self-mined BTC per day in December was 9.4.

• Hosting customers earned an estimated 18 BTC in December.

• Core Scientific sold 79 BTC in December, generating approximately $7.7 million in proceeds.

• Self-mining energized hashrate was 19.1 EH/s, and hosting energized hashrate was 1.0 EH/s, totaling 20.1 EH/s of total energized hashrate.

• Average self-mining fleet efficiency was 24.6 J/TH.

• The company operated approximately 171,000 bitcoin miners, with 164,000 miners in self-mining and 7,000 miners hosted. Core Scientific reduced power consumption on several occasions, delivering 30,985 MWh to local grids.

👁️ IREN

• IREN mined 529 BTC in December 2024, a significant increase from the 379 mined in November 2024. The company achieved a total of 3,984 BTC mined in 2024. Mining revenue in December 2024 reached $52.1m, a 60% increase MoM.

• The operating hashrate increased to 28.1 EH/s in December, with an end-of-month installed capacity of 31 EH/s.

• IREN's electricity costs for mining in December were $12.1m, with a cost per BTC mined of $22,799.

• The company also operates an AI Cloud Services business, generating $0.8m in revenue in December.

• IREN's Childress facility in Texas now has a capacity of 350 MW, with phases 4 and 5 under construction to expand by an additional 300 MW, bringing the total capacity to 50 EH/s by H1 2025.

• The Sweetwater site, with a planned 1.4GW capacity, is on track for energization by April 2026.

• The company's expansion targets for H1 2025 include reaching 50 EH/s in mining capacity.

• IREN completed a $440m oversubscribed convertible notes offering to fund its expansion and operations.

• The company is also advancing negotiations for additional AI and high-performance computing (HPC) opportunities, with 1,896 NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPUs installed and more expected.

🐝 HIVE

• HIVE produced 103 BTC in December 2024, bringing its HODL portfolio to 2,805 BTC, marking a 64.6% YoY increase. The average daily production rate was 3.32 BTC, equivalent to 18.8 BTC per Exahash.

• As of 31st December 2024, HIVE's BTC holdings were valued at over $261.9m, based on a BTC price of approximately $93,400.

• In December 2024, HIVE reached 6.0 EH/s of operational hashrate, a 47% year-over-year increase from 4.08 EH/s at the end of 2023.

• The company plans to reach 15.0 EH/s of global hashrate capacity by the end of 2025, with a fleet efficiency of 17.0 J/TH upon full deployment of a 100 MW hydroelectric-powered site in Paraguay.

• The company maintained an average mining capacity of 5.5 EH/s, with fleet efficiency at 22 J/TH and achieved a peak BTC-only hashrate of 6.0 EH/s.

• HIVE secured competitive energy pricing in Sweden, achieving sub-2-cent electricity costs per kWh.

• The company relocated its head office from Vancouver to San Antonio, Texas, to enhance its U.S. market presence, with plans to report financial results under U.S. GAAP starting in fiscal year 2025.

• Strategic developments include a new 100 MW green-energy site in Paraguay, with an initial 100 MW phase targeted for completion by mid-2025.

🐺 TeraWulf

• TeraWulf self-mined 158 BTC in December 2024, with a total of 2,728 BTC mined YTD and 423 BTC in Q4 2024.

• They also achieved 9.7 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity, a 94% YoY increase. Average power cost per BTC mined was $62,805, with an average operating hashrate of 8.4 EH/s.

• In December, TeraWulf’s bitcoin mining capacity was 195 MW with an installed self-mining hashrate of 9.7 EH/s.

• The company is progressing on construction of miner building 5 (50 MW) at Lake Mariner, scheduled for completion by mid-Q1 2025.

• Discussions are ongoing for additional HPC hosting capacity at Lake Mariner, with a potential 135 MW available by early 2026.

• Secured data center leases with Core42 for over 70 MW of digital infrastructure, generating potential revenue exceeding $1b over an initial 10-year term.

• WULF Compute's data center infrastructure, including WULF Den (2.5 MW), CB-1 (20 MW), and CB-2 (50 MW), will host Core42's operations.

🧼 Cleanspark

• CleanSpark mined 668 BTC in December 2024, bringing total BTC produced for 2024 to 7,024. End-of-month BTC holdings totaled 9,952.

• December operating hashrate was 39.1 EH/s with a fleet efficiency of 17.59 J/Th.

• CleanSpark's average hashrate in December was 35.52 EH/s, with average fleet efficiency of 18.06 J/Th, averaging 21.56 BTC mined daily. Deployed fleet size was 201,808 miners.

• The company sold 12.65 BTC in December at an average price of $101,246 per bitcoin.

• CleanSpark closed a $650m zero-coupon convertible notes offering to fund growth, stock buy-back, and capped call.

• Two bitcoin mining facilities in Clinton, Mississippi, now operational with 1 EH/s capacity from S21 Pro miners.

• First phase of 60 MW site in Jackson, Tennessee, completed with 12 MW of S21 XP Immersion miners; second phase underway.

• 75 MW immersion-cooled bitcoin mining data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, partially operational, expected to contribute 5 EH/s by Q1 2025.

🚔️ Riot

• Riot produced 516 BTC in December 2024, a 4% increase over November but a 17% decrease from December 2023. Total BTC produced for 2024 was 4,828.

• BTC holdings at the end of December 2024 were 17,722, a 141% increase compared to December 2023.

• The company sold no BTC in December but sold 590 bitcoin in December 2023 for $25.3m at an average price of $42,872 per bitcoin.

• Riot's deployed hashrate was 31.5 EH/s at the end of December 2024, a 3% increase MoM and a 155% increase YoY.

• The company’s operating hashrate in December 2024 was 27.4 EH/s, a 6% increase MoM and a 220% increase YoY.

• Power credits earned in December 2024 were $1.0m, a decrease of 26% MoM but an 85% increase YoY.

• All-in power cost was 3.8c/kWh for total operations, down 1% MoM and 7% YoY.

• Fleet efficiency improved to 21.9 J/TH, a 2% decrease from November 2024 and a 21% decrease YoY.

• The company completed the first 400 MW phase of its Corsicana Facility, with all systems and miners installed, but delayed hashrate online due to a measured commissioning process for power quality.

🛖 Hut 8

• Hut 8 produced 89 BTC in December 2024, slightly down from 94 BTC in November 2024. The company holds 10,171 BTC in reserve as of December 2024, up from 9,122 BTC at the end of November.

• The total hashrate under management in December was 13.2 EH/s, down from 21.0 EH/s in November, reflecting the transition to a more efficient fleet.

• The deployed miners under management in December were 121.4K, a decrease from 201.1K in November.

• Hut 8's total energy capacity under management for mining was 665 MW, down from 967 MW in November 2024.

• The company is on track for the completion of the 205 MW Vega project in Q2 2025, which will further boost self-mining capacity.

• Hut 8 also operates several joint venture projects and smaller data centers across North America, totaling 1,020 MW in energy capacity across its portfolio.

⛓️ DMG Blockchain

• DMG mined 32 BTC in December 2024, with a total of 97 BTC for Q4 2024. Holdings at the end of December totaled 406 BTC.

• The company’s hashrate was 1.68 EH/s at the end of December, and the fleet efficiency was 23 J/TH. DMG’s hashrate grew more than 70% from under 1 EH/s in January to 1.72 EH/s by the end of 2024.

• The company aims to reach 2.1 EH/s with hydro Bitcoin mining equipment in early 2025 and grow to 3 EH/s in 2025.

• DMG signed an MOU with the Malahat Nation to build 30 MW of Gen AI compute capacity and is working on offtake agreements.

• Achieved regulatory milestones to become a qualified custodian in early 2025, with a focus on expanding beyond custody services in 2025.

• Acquired the Reactor software platform in October 2024 for assuring hashrate delivery over contract terms.

• Released the first version of Helm, a Bitcoin DCIM tool for internal use in December 2024, with a goal of expanding it for Terra Pool clients in 2025.

• DMG utilized a $19m loan facility, drawing $9.4m for capital expenditures, including purchasing 4,550 Bitmain T21 miners.

🖥️ Bit Digital

• Bit Digital produced 32.4 BTC in December 2024, a 27.8% decrease MoM, mainly due to changes in its hosting portfolio and the retirement of older miners.

• The company’s active hashrate was 1.8 EH/s in December 2024, a 28% decrease compared to the prior month.

• Bit Digital's GPU Cloud revenue for December 2024 was approximately $4.5m, with 266 servers (2,128 GPUs) actively generating revenue from Bit Digital AI contracts.

• Treasury holdings were 742.1 BTC and 27,623.9 ETH as of December 31, 2024.

• The company received $177k in cash payments from its equipment leasing contract with Boosteroid.

• Bit Digital purchased 941 S21 mining units for $3.2m and sold 4,506 S19 mining units for $836.6K in December 2024.

• The company had 21,568 ETH staked in native staking protocols, earning a blended APY of approximately 3.3%, and received approximately 60.6 ETH in staking rewards during December 2024.