Bitcoin mining was less profitable in July than June, Jefferies says

Bitcoin (BTC) mining was slightly less profitable in July than the previous month as the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency fell over 6% while the network hashrate remained stable, investment bank Jefferies said in a research report on Thursday.

Hashrate is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.

The bank cut its Marathon Digital (MARA) price target to $17 from $22 while maintaining a hold rating on the shares. The stock fell 0.7% to around $15 in pre-market trading.

U.S.-listed mining companies produced a larger share of bitcoin in July than June, accounting for 21.1% of the total network versus 20.7% in May, the report said. August will be a more difficult month for the miners as the price of bitcoin has dropped about 5% while the network hashrate has started to grow again, the report added.

Their market share rose as "public players brought on new capacity faster than the network hashrate increased," analysts Jonathan Petersen and Joe Dickstein wrote.

Marathon Digital produced the most bitcoin in July, a total of 692 coins or 17% more than the month before, the report noted. The miner's installed hashrate also remains the largest in the sector.

Wall Street giant JPMorgan (JPM) noted that U.S.-listed miners' share of the global hashrate reached a record in July, the bank said in a report last month.