PANews reported on December 25 that according to Cointelegraph, as of December 24, Bitcoin's return rate in 2024 reached 113%. However, most mining stocks failed to take full advantage of the rising momentum of cryptocurrencies and still fell at the end of the year. According to data from Hashrate Index and Google Finance, most listed mining companies performed poorly at the end of 2024, with the highest decline reaching 84%.
Of the 25 listed mining companies in the index, only seven have generated gains for investors so far this year. At press time, 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) at 69%, MARA Holdings (MARA) at 12%, Hive (HIVE) at 29%, Greenidge (GREE) at 74%, Bitfarms (BITF) at 44%, and BitFufu (FUFU) at 18% (to name a few).
Overall, 2024 is a year for Bitcoin miners to adapt to changes, cope with reduced rewards and increased costs, and seek new sources of income to maintain operations. Bitcoin miners have accumulated revenue of more than $71 billion. According to Blockchain.com, miners earned $42 million on December 22, compared with a peak of more than $100 million in April. At the same time, the current average difficulty of the Bitcoin network is 108.52 T, up from 72.01 T a year ago, an increase of 50.71% in the past 12 months. Mining fees have also increased significantly due to increased operating costs.
