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☆ Bitcoin faces 'several' headwinds that will challenge miners in near term, says JPMorgan
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Unprofitable bitcoin miners are starting to exit the network after the halving , as expected. But much of their performance relies on bitcoin's price, which still faces several near-term headwinds, according to JPMorgan. However, "we do not see upside for bitcoin prices in the current juncture and if anything we see headwinds over the near term," he added. That was expected to happen after the halving in April, which slashed a key revenue source for bitcoin miners. "The more bitcoin prices decline the higher the number of unprofitable miners that come under pressure to leave the bitcoin network and the larger the result[ing] decline in the hash rate and bitcoin production cost."

Persons: JPMorgan's Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Bitcoin, it's overbought, There's, Kong's, there's, Panigirtzoglou Organizations: JPMorgan, Venture, Miners

☆ Jack Dorsey’s payments company, Block, is building its own bitcoin mining system
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Jack Dorsey says that his payments company, Block (formerly Square), is expanding its bitcoin mining ambitions from designing chips to developing a full bitcoin mining system. "Building on these insights and pursuant to our goal of supporting mining decentralization, we plan to offer both a standalone mining chip as well as a full mining system of our own design." "Mining isn't accessible to everyone," Dorsey wrote when Block first entered the business of building mining hardware in 2021. "Bitcoin mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source. The company was light on the details in this latest announcement, but Dorsey posted in 2021 that the company was considering a "bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon."

Persons: Jack Dorsey, We've, Dorsey, Block, Thomas Templeton Organizations: Mining Locations: China, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia

☆ Bitcoin miners brace for impact as halving goes live
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

The technical event is relatively simple: Bitcoin miners get paid in bitcoin to validate transactions, and after 210,000 blocks of transactions are computed and added to the main chain, the reward given to the miners securing bitcoin is 'halved.' The aggregate market cap of the 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan analysts declined 28% over the first half of April to $14.2 billion, reaching year-to-date lows. Some have billed the 2024 bitcoin halving as a seminal moment for the mining sector. Marathon, along with other mining firms, has begun diversifying its business model into ancillary operations beyond purely bitcoin mining. Sullivan continued, "Bitcoin mining sites can only be repurposed if they meet the attributes that are required for HPC.

Persons: AUSTIN , TEXAS — Adam Sullivan, bitcoin, Sullivan, they'll, it's, Core's Sullivan, Bitdeer, Needham, Haris Basit, Basit, Cantor Fitzgerald, Greg Beard, Beard, Bitdeer's, Jason Les, Les, Fred Thiel, Capex, Thiel, Stronghold's Beard, Nic Carter, Blackrock, Bill Barhydt, Barhydt, Island's Carter isn't, Carter, CoinShares Organizations: bitcoin, CNBC, JPMorgan, Cipher, Bitdeer Technologies, Mining, Miners, Riot, Island Ventures, Circuits, Nvidia, CoreWeave, Bitcoin, HPC Locations: AUSTIN , TEXAS, Texas, bitcoin, U.S, Rockdale , Texas, Singapore, Bitcoin, Hong Kong, Abra, Europe, Dalton , Georgia, North America

☆ The Bitcoin network completes the fourth-ever ‘halving’ of rewards to miners
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

watch nowThe Bitcoin network on Friday evening completed its fourth "halving," reducing the rewards earned by miners to 3.125 bitcoins from 6.25. After the 2012, 2016 and 2020 halvings, the bitcoin price ran up about 93x, 30x and 8x, respectively, from its halving day price to its cycle top. Hash rates are a measure of the computational power used to process transactions on the bitcoin network. "The market so far has seen bitcoin mining stocks as mere BTC proxies, in absence of bitcoin ETFs," said Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani. "[The] Bitcoin halving is already partially priced in by the market and we do not expect prices to increase significantly following the halving event," the firm's Marion Laboure said in a note Thursday, adding that it "has been widely anticipated in advance due to the nature of the Bitcoin algorithm."

Persons: Reginald Smith, Bernstein, Gautam Chhugani, MARA, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Marion Laboure Organizations: Metrics, JPMorgan, BTC, IRIS, Deutsche Bank Locations: Friday's

☆ JPMorgan likes these mining stocks to play the upcoming bitcoin halving
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

While most of the public cryptocurrency miners are positioned to survive the supply shock of the bitcoin halving, JPMorgan has named its top picks. "With the bitcoin halving on the horizon, we expect heightened volatility and trading volume in both bitcoin and mining stocks," Reginald Smith, an analyst at JPMorgan, said in a note this week. The bitcoin halving is estimated to take place in the next couple of days , and mining companies are preparing for reduced rewards revenue that will follow the event. Nevertheless, uncertainty ahead of the halving has pressured mining stocks, most of which are down double digits for the year. The halving occurs when incentives for bitcoin miners shrink to 3.125 newly created bitcoins — or about $20,000 at Thursday morning's prices — from 6.25, as mandated by the code of the bitcoin blockchain.

Persons: Reginald Smith, Smith, Iris, Iris Energy, MARA, CleanSpark, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: JPMorgan, Iris Energy, Iris

☆ CleanSpark jumps on plans to buy four bitcoin mining facilities ahead of the halving
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark climbed on Tuesday after the company said it will acquire new mining facilities that will give it the power and infrastructure to potentially double its hashrate within the first half of the year. At one point, the stock rose as high as 10.8%, also helped by a midday rise in the price of bitcoin . The company agreed to buy three "turnkey" sites — meaning they need only to plug their existing hardware into the facility — in Mississippi for $19.8 million in cash. Additionally, CleanSpark plans to acquire a facility in Dalton, Georgia, for an initial cash payment of $3.4 million. "Our operations in Georgia have given us significant experience in southeastern power markets.

Persons: CleanSpark, Zachary Bradford Organizations: CNBC Locations: Mississippi, Dalton , Georgia, Dalton, Georgia

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Palantir, Spotify, UPS, DocuSign and more
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In its second quarter, the materials company posted earnings of 36 cents per share, greater than the 26 cents per share anticipated by analysts polled by StreetAccount. In its fourth quarter, the company posted adjusted earnings of 87 cents per share, compared to guidance of 85 cents to 87 cents in earnings per share. The company said it was committed to announcing a $3.5 billion share buyback for the first half of the year. The insurance service company reported adjusted earnings of $7.44 per share, topping the FactSet consensus estimate of $7.05 in earnings per share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $1.08 per share on revenue of $1.24 billion.

Persons: Li, Willis Towers Watson, Gil Shwed, DocuSign, FactSet, Rambus, — CNBC's Michelle Fox, Alex Harring, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, Jesse Pound, Pia Singh Organizations: LSEG, StreetAccount, GE HealthCare Technologies, FactSet, Li Auto, Deutsche Bank, Spotify Technology, DuPont de Nemours, BP —, BP, Simon Property Group, Simon Property, United Parcel Service, UBS, Software Technologies, UBS — U.S, FMC Locations: StreetAccount ., FactSet ., Mississippi, Dalton , Georgia, Dalton, Swiss

A bitcoin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 14 (Reuters) - Bitcoin miners are making hay while the sun shines. "You're seeing a lot of urgency to plug rigs in ahead of the halving," said Gregory Lewis, analyst at brokerage BTIG that covers the 13 biggest U.S.-listed bitcoin miners. That means miners are having to use more and more power and speed to crack the complex maths puzzles that earn them a bitcoin. "It's too early to say if all bitcoin miners are out of the wood," said Ludovic Thomas, portfolio manager at Swiss-based Criptonite Asset Management that invests in digital assets.

Persons: Benoit Tessier, Gregory Lewis, Bitcoin's, Morgan, William Szamosszegi, Matteo Greco, It's, Ludovic Thomas, Medha Singh, Lisa Mattackal, Vidya Ranganathan Organizations: La Maison du, REUTERS, U.S, Fineqia, Central, Swiss, Management, Thomson, Reuters Locations: La, Paris, France, J.P, Bengaluru

☆ Bernstein says to buy these crypto stocks to play the expected bitcoin ETF and halving
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Crypto investors are returning attention to two big catalysts – a bitcoin ETF and the Bitcoin halving – and Bernstein has ways to play each. With that backdrop, Bernstein recently initiated coverage on bitcoin mining stocks, with an outperform rating on both Riot Platforms and CleanSpark and a market perform rating on Marathon Digital . "Right now, you should buy RIOT and CLSK, with clear market catalysts around bitcoin ETF approval in early 2024," Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani said in a note Monday. Further down the road, there's the next bitcoin halving, which is expected in the spring of 2024. It happens approximately every four years, when the reward for mining bitcoin is cut in half as mandated in the Bitcoin code to reduce the supply of the cryptocurrency over time.

Persons: Bernstein, Crypto, Gautam Chhugani, It's, Chhugani, it's, CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Marathon

☆ Bitcoin mining stocks are rallying, but some are poised for a fall if the cryptocurrency hits this key level
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

But the Bitcoin halving is expected in the spring and it will likely reduce companies' revenue. The Bitcoin halving event is highly anticipated event by crypto investors because it historically has set the stage for new bull runs. It takes place every four years when the reward for mining bitcoin – which makes up a significant portion of mining companies' revenue – is cut in half. Marathon famously has the highest energy costs and lowest margins, while Riot has relatively low power costs but shares are expensive. Lower revenue, higher costs Generally, the mining stocks benefit from bitcoin price increases because those translate into higher mining revenue for the company.

Persons: John Todaro, Reginald Smith, Needham, CleanSpark, There's, Smith, bitcoin, Michael Bloom Organizations: JPMorgan, Riot, Miners Locations: Marathon

☆ Bitcoin miners beef up Texas operations ahead of extinction-level event, exclusive data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Bitcoin miners are barreling toward the "halving" — a major market-making event that some fear will be a death knell to many in the industry. "We're taking a long-term bet on bitcoin and on the fact that bitcoin mining will survive and will bounce back even stronger." Texas has grown to dominate bitcoin mining partly because of support from local authorities and the operator of the Texas energy grid, ERCOT. Even during the bear market, Texas miners are building out, buying new sites and fresh fleets of hardware. The mining company was spun off from Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain and went public via SPAC earlier this year.

Persons: Kevin Zhang, Jihan Wu, Bitmain, Kevin Zhang Crypto, He's, China — he's, Zhang, bitcoin, Barry Silbert's, Foundry's, —, Chad Harris, ERCOT, Nic Carter, Shaun Connell, Brad Jones, Brandon Arvanaghi, Jason Les, Navarro, Les, hashrate, Morgan, Bitdeer Organizations: Foundry, Mining, CNBC, U.S, Riot, Cipher Mining, Georgia, Securities Exchange Commission, JPMorgan Chase Locations: Sweden, Republic of Georgia, China, America, Beijing, Shenzhen, Montana, North America, Texas, Wyoming, New York, United States, U.S, . Texas, Castle, Rockdale, Austin, Milam, Odessa , Texas, Minden , Nebraska, , Texas, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, North Carolina , Kentucky , Oklahoma, Washington

☆ Bitcoin posted its worst month since November, but network activity saw record highs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Even though bitcoin just ended its first down month of the year, the network activity hit new record highs — and that's a good thing for Bitcoin and its investors. However, Bitcoin's average daily network hashrate – which measures how much computing power the network uses to process transactions and is a key indicator of the network's health – increased for the fifth consecutive month. Investors want the hashrate to be larger; the more energy devoted to securing the network, the broader and more decentralized the network becomes. At the same time, Bitcoin's mining difficulty increased by about 2% for the month and reached an all-time high. Transaction fees on Bitcoin also surged in May with the help of Ordinals , digital content on Bitcoin similar to nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, with some technical differences.

Persons: bitcoin, Bitcoin, Reginald Smith, Bitcoin's, Smith, Michael Bloom Organizations: Investors, JPMorgan Locations: U.S

☆ Bitcoin miners are feeling the heat as the network’s mining difficulty reaches an all-time high
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

If there's too much competition, that means the blocks are coming in too fast and the difficulty needs to go up, D.A. "An increasing network hashrate is good for the health of the [Bitcoin] network," Brendler told CNBC Pro. The problem for miners Miners have been feeling the heat since bitcoin fell below $20,000 and energy prices have increased. But between the hot Texas summer and the falling price of bitcoin, many miners have been forced to stop. In previous years, there's been a positive correlation between the bitcoin price and the Bitcoin hashrate, but in this new macro-led market, investors shouldn't place too much faith in that, Lau said.

A bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. "Bitcoin miners have continued to watch margins compress - the price of bitcoin has fallen, mining difficulty has risen and energy prices have soared," said Joe Burnett, head analyst at Blockware Solutions. That's put serious pressure on some players who bought expensive mining machines, or rigs, banking on rising bitcoin prices to recoup their investment. Shares of Marathon Digital (MARA.O), Riot Blockchain (RIOT.O) and Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI.O) have sunk more than 60% this year, for example, while crypto-mining data center operator Compute North filed for bankruptcy last week. "From managing their balance sheet, processing units and energy costs, miners will look to stay afloat regardless of current market conditions," he added.

☆ Ether is down almost 20% since the merge. Here’s what’s going on
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Twice during the week, as bitcoin dipped below the $19,000 level, ether hovered at $1,300 (about 70% below its all-time high). Many expected the merge to be a buy-the-rumor/sell-the-news event, and there are growing concerns in the crypto community about the post-merge Ethereum. Ahead of the merge, many investors were buying spot ether and shorting ether perpetual futures , in order to get tokens of the "forked" version of Ethereum for free, without the ether price exposure. Growing concerns Ahead of the merge, there were two main concerns the crypto community had begun exploring. "It looks like Ethereum Classic has been the main beneficiary post merge," JPMorgan's Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a note this week.

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