Bitcoin Mining Profitability Improved in November, JPMorgan Says

Bitcoin (BTC) daily mining revenue and gross profit rose in November as the world's largest cryptocurrency hit record highs, but it is still about 50% below pre-halving levels, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Monday.

"We estimate that bitcoin miners earned an average of $52,000 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue in November, up 24% from October," analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote.

The bank noted that transaction fees on the network spiked following the U.S. Nov. 5 presidential election and this provided some "hashprice relief." The hashprice is a measure of mining profitability.

The total market cap of the 14 publicly listed bitcoin miners in the bank's coverage surged 52% in November to $36.2 billion, the report said.

The average network hashrate rose 4% month-on-month to 731 exahash per second (EH/s), the bank noted, while mining difficulty increased 7% from October.

Hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.

Bitcoin's annualized volatility rose to 62% in November, up from 42% the month before, the report added.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Revenue, Profit Fell in October for a Fourth Consecutive Month: JPMorgan