US listed Bitcoin miners accounted for 25% of global network in December: Jefferies

What to know

• Bitcoin miners listed in the U.S. accounted for 25.3% of the global network in December, the report said.

• Jefferies cuts its MARA price target to $20 from $24 and maintained its hold rating on the shares.

• Mining profitability rose in December as the rally in bitcoin outpaced the rise in the network hashrate, the bank said.

U.S.-listed bitcoin (BTC) miners accounted for 25.3% of the global network in December, Jefferies said in a research report on Thursday.

The bank cut its price target for MARA Holdings (MARA) to $20 from $24, while maintaining its hold rating on the stock. The shares rose 0.5% to $18.43 during early trading Friday.

Mining profitability improved in December as the average price of bitcoin gained 15%, outpacing the increase in the network hashrate, which was 6.5% higher, the report said.

The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.

Average daily revenue was $59,585 per exahash, a 7.1% increase from November, Jefferies said.

U.S.-listed mining companies mined 3,602 bitcoin in December versus 3,404 the month previous, the bank said. Jefferies noted that MARA mined the most bitcoin last month with 890 tokens, followed by CleanSpark (CLSK) with 668.

MARA's installed hashrate remained the largest in the sector at 53.2 exahashes per second (EH/s). CleanSpark had the second-largest hashrate with 39.1 EH/s, the report added.