Bitcoin Hashrate Pauses in Early October as U.S. Miners Reach $79B Market Cap

The Bitcoin network hashrate eased slightly in the first two weeks of October, falling by 5 exahashes per second (EH/s) to an average of 1,030 EH/s, according to a JPMorgan (JPM) report released Thursday. This modest pullback follows the record highs observed in August and September.

The 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan now represent roughly 38% of the global network, and their combined market capitalization surged 41% month-over-month to a record $79 billion. Analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce highlighted that the rally reflects continued enthusiasm for high-performance computing (HPC) in the sector.

Mining Profitability Trends

Miners earned approximately $52,500 in daily block rewards per EH/s, up 6% from the end of September. However, the hashprice, a key measure of daily mining profitability, fell 7%, suggesting a slight dip in efficiency despite higher revenue per EH/s.

Market Performance of U.S. Miners

All tracked miners outperformed BTC over the period. Bitfarms (BITF) led the gains with a 129% increase, while Cango (CANG) was the laggard, posting a modest 3% rise, the report noted.

The hashrate measures the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, serving as a proxy for industry competition and mining difficulty. Despite the small decline in early October, the overall trend points to strong growth and investor confidence in U.S. miners.