PANews reported on December 25, citing Cointelegraph, that as of December 24, Bitcoin's return rate for 2024 reached 113%. However, most mining company stocks have failed to fully capitalize on the cryptocurrency's upward momentum, still showing declines at year-end. According to data from Hashrate Index and Google Finance, most publicly listed mining companies have performed poorly at year-end in 2024, with the highest drop reaching 84%.
Among the 25 publicly listed mining companies in the index, only 7 have provided returns for investors so far this year. As of the time of writing, Bitdeer (BTDR) is up 167%, Cipher (CIFR) is up 33%, Hut 8 (HUT) is up 91%, Iris Energy (IREN) is up 72%, Northern Data (NB2) is up 58%, Core Scientific (CORZQ) is up 327%, and TeraWulf (WULF) is up 169%. On the other hand, Argo Blockchain (ARB) is down 84%, followed by Sphere 3D (ANY) down 69%, MARA Holdings (MARA) down 12%, Hive (HIVE) down 29%, Greenidge (GREE) down 74%, Bitfarms (BITF) down 44%, and BitFufu (FUFU) down 18% (just to name a few).
Overall, 2024 is a year for Bitcoin mining companies to adapt to changes, addressing issues of reward reduction and rising costs, while seeking new revenue sources to maintain operations. Bitcoin miners have accumulated over $71 billion in revenue. According to Blockchain.com, miners' revenue on December 22 was $42 million, while the peak in April exceeded $100 million. Meanwhile, the average difficulty of the current Bitcoin network is 108.52 T, up from 72.01 T a year ago, an increase of 50.71% over the past 12 months. Due to rising operating costs, mining fees have also increased significantly.
