The Bitcoin network hashrate returned to record highs last month, increasing around 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) to an average of 949 EH/s, Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Tuesday.
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.
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The total market cap of the 13 U.S-listed bitcoin BTC$108,783.53 miners the bank tracks also hit a record high in August, with high-performance computing (HPC) execution driving the gains.
TeraWulf (WULF) announced a colocation deal with Fluidstack and IREN (IREN) expanded its GPU fleet, the bank noted.
With the hashrate at a record, mining profitability declined from the previous month as the bitcoin price fell.
“We estimate bitcoin miners earned an average of $55,100 per EH/s in daily block reward revenue in August, down 4% from July,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote. Daily block reward gross profit also fell, dropping 7% to $31,900 per EH/s, the analysts wrote.
The combined market cap of the 13 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners that JPMorgan analysts track surged 23% from the month previous, or around $7.4 billion.
TeraWulf outperformed with a 83% gain, while Greenidge Generation (GREE) underperformed the group with a 22% decline, the report added.
Read more: Bitcoin’s 7 Day Average Hashrate Hits 1 ZettaHash for First Time