The Bitcoin network hashrate hit a record high in October, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a report on Monday.

The monthly average network hashrate rose 5% to 1,082 exahashes per second (EH/s), the report said.

The 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.

At the end of last month, “mining difficulty was 3% higher than the end of September, and 80% higher than difficulty heading into the most recent halving,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote. The halving, when the reward assigned for adding a block to the blockchain is cut by 50%, took place in April 2024.

Mining economics were pressured for the third month in a row, the report noted.

The bank’s analysts estimated that miners earned an average of $48,000 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue in October, 3% less than in September. Daily block reward gross profit fell 4%.

The combined market cap of the 14 U.S.-listed mining companies that the bank tracks increased $14 billion, or 25%, to $70 billion last month. The move was driven by high-performance computing (HPC) announcements and enthusiasm about the sector’s pivot to AI.

Ciper Mining (CIFR) outperformed the group with a 48% increase last month, and Cango (CANG) underperformed with a 5% decline, the analysts said. It was the only mining company covered to perform worse than bitcoin, which fell 3.9%.

Read more: Bitcoin Miners Sit on Prime Power Assets as AI Pivot Accelerates: Canaccord

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Author: Will Canny