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⚡February Bitcoin Mining Profits Beat January🪘

Croxroad

28 Mar 2024 — 4 min read

☕️ GM Dear Plebs!

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The menu for today:

⛏️ Jefferies Analysis

Bitcoin mining proved to be more lucrative in February compared to January, according to a recent research report by investment bank Jefferies. The report highlighted a 15% increase in the price of Bitcoin, coupled with a 9% slower rate of growth in the network hashrate. This dynamic led to increased profitability for miners during the month.

Jefferies noted a shift in the landscape of Bitcoin mining among publicly listed North American companies. These companies saw a decrease in their share of Bitcoin production, dropping from 19% to 17.5% of the total network. The report attributed this decline to the emergence of new hashrate from alternative sources beyond publicly listed entities.

Analysts Jonathan Petersen and Amanda Santillo underscored the remarkable expansion of the network hashrate over the past year, nearly doubling in size. However, they also highlighted the loss of market share among publicly traded miners during this period.

The report shed light on Marathon Digital's strategic shift towards building its own infrastructure rather than relying solely on third-party providers for hosting its mining machines. This move, described as a "defensive move ahead of the halving," aims to bolster the company's competitive position in the market. Jefferies supported this strategy, emphasising Marathon Digital's advantage in scalability for expanding its market share. Despite lowering its price target on Marathon Digital shares due to downtime concerns, Jefferies increased its price target on Argo Blockchain, citing the company's potential to capitalise on the higher Bitcoin price and expand its hashrate more rapidly.

🦓 Market Analysis

Last week witnessed a whirlwind of volatility in the cryptocurrency market, particularly for Bitcoin, the primary cryptocurrency. Following the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Bitcoin experienced a surge of over $7,000 midweek, only to see the rally swiftly reversed, bringing the asset back to $62,500 by Friday.

Despite attempts by bullish investors to reclaim lost ground over the weekend, Bitcoin's ascent was modest, reaching $66,000 before retracing to $64,000. However, a significant shift occurred with the start of the new week, as Bitcoin gained momentum, rapidly climbing by several thousand dollars to peak at $71,000. The following day saw further gains, with Bitcoin hitting a multi-week high of $71,600, buoyed by increased inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

However, Bitcoin fell short of breaking its March 14 all-time high of $73,800, subsequently retreating to just under $70,000, its current position. Consequently, Bitcoin's market capitalization dipped below $1.4 trillion, though its dominance over alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) rose by almost 1% to 49.8% on CoinGecko.

The dominance of Bitcoin over altcoins signals trouble for the latter, as most altcoins experienced losses amid Bitcoin's fluctuations. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest digital asset, declined by 3% to $3,550, while other major altcoins like Binance Coin, Solana, Ripple, and Cardano retracted by 3-5%. Furthermore, significant losses were recorded across various altcoins, including Toncoin (-9%), Avalanche (-6%), IMX (-7%), TAO (-9%), and HBAR (-6%).

Overall, the total cryptocurrency market cap saw a decline of over $50 billion since the previous day's peak, falling well below $2.8 trillion on CoinGecko. Amidst the evolving market dynamics, investors remain vigilant, navigating through the volatility while closely monitoring Bitcoin's movements and their impact on the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.

🐟 Phishing Scams

Crypto phishing scams remain a persistent threat, where scammers attempt to obtain personal information by sending deceptive emails with malicious links to fake websites. These scams aim to trick individuals into divulging sensitive data like passwords or financial details. To safeguard against such scams, it's crucial not to input confidential information through email links. Instead, users should always navigate directly to the website by typing the URL into the browser, irrespective of how legitimate the email or link may seem. This simple precaution can help prevent falling victim to crypto phishing schemes and protect personal data from exploitation.