Bitcoin Network Hashrate Dips in June as Miners Scale Back Operations Amid Heatwave, Says JPMorgan

Bitcoin’s monthly average network hashrate declined by approximately 3% in June, according to a research note from Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) released on Tuesday.

The hashrate, which measures the combined computational power securing the Bitcoin network and processing transactions on its proof-of-work blockchain, serves as an indicator of both competition among miners and the network’s mining difficulty. It’s quantified in exahashes per second (EH/s).

“The drop appears to be driven by seasonal, weather-related curtailments in the U.S.,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote. They highlighted that miners like Cipher, IREN, and Riot collectively operate over 80 EH/s in Texas, a region impacted by the recent heatwave.

Despite the reduction in hashrate, bitcoin mining profitability has continued to rise. JPMorgan’s analysts estimate miners earned an average of $55,300 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue last month, marking a 7% increase compared to April.

Daily block reward gross profits climbed 13% month-over-month, reaching their highest levels since January, the report noted.

Meanwhile, the combined market capitalization of the 13 publicly traded U.S.-based bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan surged by 23% in June, equating to roughly $5.3 billion in additional value.

Miners with exposure to high-performance computing (HPC) outpaced pure-play bitcoin mining firms, fueled by speculation around a potential deal between Core Scientific (CORZ) and CoreWeave (CRWV).