Bitcoin Mining Stocks Lag Despite Price Surge
The Bitcoin market has shown remarkable performance in 2024, with a rise of 113% by December 24. However, many mining companies have not been able to capitalize on this surge. According to industry reports from IT BOLTWISE® x Artificial Intelligence, most publicly traded miners ended the year with losses, some experiencing declines as steep as 84%. Among the few successful firms was Core Scientific, which saw an impressive increase of 327%, while Bitdeer and TeraWulf also posted gains of 167% and 169%, respectively.
The challenges for Bitcoin miners in 2024 were manifold. One major hurdle was the Bitcoin halving event in April that reduced rewards for mining new blocks from 6.25 BTC to somewhat over three bitcoins per block completion every ten minutes or so, leading revenues down significantly compared to previous highs. Earlier in the same calendar period, they peaked above $100 million USD during spring months like May-June before tapering off towards end-of-year figures of just about forty-two million dollars by December.
Partial Ban Until 2031: Russia Pulls the Plug on Crypto Miners
Crypto mining is once again illegal in certain regions of Russia despite having recently become legal just a few months ago. As reported by BTC-ECHO, this prohibition will last six years until March 15th, 2031 across ten specific areas including Dagestan, Chechnya, Donetsk, and Lugansk among others. Further expansions may occur due to concerns regarding excessive energy consumption levels associated with these activities.
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