Crypto: Top Bitcoin Mining Stocks Rise Amid Us Winter Storm Hashrate Decline

Hashrate fell sharply as Bitcoin miners curtailed operations during extreme winter conditions in the US, boosting profitability for companies that stayed online.

Bitcoin mining stocks saw a significant bump on Wednesday after the US winter storm forced some companies to wind down operations, leading to lower block competition and more profitable mining operations.

Shares of several major mining companies posted double-digit gains over the past 24 hours. TeraWulf rose about 11%, Iren Limited gained 14% and Cipher Mining climbed about 13%, according to data from Barchart.

The rally occurred days after the Bitcoin network’s hashrate sank to a seven-month low of 663 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Sunday, a 40% drop in two days due to a severe winter storm battering the US.

The hashrate recovered to 814 EH/s on Wednesday, but has yet to recover to the 1.1 zettahash per second (ZH/s) level before the weekend decline, data from Coinwarz shows.

A lower hashrate signals that fewer miners are online, reducing the competition for mining a block on the Bitcoin network, making Bitcoin (BTC) mining more profitable for miners who stay online.

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The Bitcoin hash price index, a benchmark for measuring miner profitability through the revenue generated per terahash, also points to more lucrative mining conditions.

The Bitcoin hashprice index rose to $0.040 per terahash per day on Wednesday, up from $0.038 TH/s per day, according to the HashrateIndex.

Related: Crypto loses speculative edge as AI and robotics attract capital: Delphi

Source: CoinTelegraph