Bitcoin BTC$76,073.52 mining shares kicked off 2026 on a powerful word, buoyed by falling community competitors and recent enthusiasm round high-performance computing (HPC), Wall Avenue financial institution JPMorgan stated within the Monday report.
The financial institution famous that the 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners and information heart operators it tracks ended final month with a mixed market capitalization of $60 billion, up 23% month over month, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 1% achieve.
The rally was helped partially by information that Riot Platforms signed a HPC settlement with AMD at its 700-megawatt Rockdale facility, underscoring miners’ push to diversify past bitcoin.
Dealing with record-low margins after the 2024 halving, bitcoin miners are repositioning as digital infrastructure suppliers, repurposing power-dense mining websites into AI-ready information facilities in the hunt for steadier, long-term income.
On the identical time, valuations continued to stretch. Analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce stated mining shares had been buying and selling at roughly 150% of the four-year block reward alternative at year-end, about 3 times the post-2022 common, highlighting a rising disconnect between miner valuations and bitcoin’s value.
Operationally, January introduced reduction. Winter storms throughout the U.S. compelled widespread curtailments, dragging the typical community hashrate down 6% month over month to 981 exahashes per second (EH/s), JPMorgan stated. The hashrate briefly dipped as little as 700 EH/s in the course of the month, whereas mining issue fell 5% from December and sat 10% under November’s all-time excessive.
The hashrate refers back to the whole mixed computational energy used to mine and course of transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is a proxy for competitors within the trade and mining issue. It’s measured in exahashes per second.
That drop in competitors helped offset weaker bitcoin costs. The analysts estimated miners earned about $42,350 per EH/s in day by day block reward income in January, up barely from December, whereas gross revenue jumped 24% to roughly $21,200 per EH/s as community effectivity improved. Nonetheless, profitability stays effectively under pre-halving ranges, the financial institution famous.
Inventory efficiency was broadly constructive. Twelve of the 14 miners tracked by the financial institution outperformed bitcoin’s 4% decline in January, with IREN (IREN) rising 42% and Cango (CANG) falling 18%. Even after the rally, the group’s mixed valuation stays about 15% under October 2025 highs.
Learn extra: Bitcoin miners HIVE, Bitfarm and Bitdeer downgraded as analyst warns on AI shift
