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In a bid to offset lowered profitability from mining cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners are on the hunt for new revenue streams such as offering high performance computing services to the fast-growing artificial intelligence market, J.P. Morgan pointed out in a recent note.
In recent quarters, analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted, miners have been selling tokens to at least partly fund these new ventures. Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), formerly known as Riot Blockchain, in July received net proceeds of $12.1M on the sales of 400 bitcoins (BTC-USD).
The profit squeeze in bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining isn’t a new development, as token prices have more than halved from the November 2021 peak, persistent inflation has pushed up miners’ costs over the past couple years, and the global hashrate keeps rising, Also “the approaching halving event that will reduce bitcoin issuance rewards by half from May 2024” is also set to put a damper on profitability, the sell-side analyst wrote this past Wednesday.
Among some of the drivers keeping bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other token prices at relatively depressed levels include fears over higher-for-longer interest rates, increased regulatory scrutiny of the crypto space, and weakness in China’s economy.
BTC miners are also attempting to diversify across the globe, with Russia emerging “as one of the global leaders second to the US in terms of bitcoin mining power consumption.” Some suggest that’s because crypto could help Russia circumvent western sanctions imposed due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Bitcoin miners: Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE), Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT), Bitfarms (NASDAQ:BITF), Hut 8 Mining (NASDAQ:HUT), CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), Greenidge Generation (NASDAQ:GREE) and Iris Energy (NASDAQ:IREN).
