Bitcoin Price Boosts Miners, as Hashrate Climbs

Share prices of US-traded crypto mining firms finished the week higher on Friday, bolstered by short-term risk-on trader sentiment for digital assets

article-image

Exclusive art by Axel Rangel, modified by Blockworks

share

The majority of crypto-related equities finished up in positive territory last week, with US-traded mining firms gaining distance from historical lows set at the end of last year.

Bitcoin is also pushing for further gains on the day after closing the session roughly 3.2% higher to $23,800 Sunday, while its market capitalization also leaped 3.3% to $458.6 million.

Ether clocked a higher daily close above $1,645, gaining 4.5% alongside a $10 billion uplift to its market value. Bitcoin and ether are now up 43.9% and 37.6% year-to-date respectively.

Bitcoin miners continue to rise alongside market sentiment, witnessed by the positive jump in spot prices for digital assets as the beleaguered sector takes stock of a shifting risk-on attitude.

Hong Kong-based Bit Mining (BTCM), listed on the New York Stock Exchange, posted a Friday close of 7.6% to $3.55 while Chinese miner SOS ADR, also listed in New York, rose almost 2%.

NASDAQ-listed mining firms Bitfarms, Stronghold Digital, Cipher Mining, Cleanspark and Bit Digital rose between 2.8% and 16.6% on Friday.

Marathon Digital and Iris Energy were the US’s main outliers in the bitcoin mining category, shedding 8.3% to $8 and 4.3% to $2.10 respectively by the end of last week’s closing bell. 

Greenidge Generation Holdings, which also fell 0.8% on Friday, has begun to reverse prior losses, with a 2.6% gain in after-hours trading to $0.90.

Prices for most US-traded miners have more than doubled this year, following daily lows set at the end of 2022. It comes as the average mining difficulty for bitcoin hit a new all-time high beginning Jan. 18 — now 41% greater than a year ago, data from YCharts show.

Global hashrate — a measure of bitcoin network security — hit a fresh all-time high on Friday at 316 exahashes per second (EH/s), while miners have until Feb. 11 before the next difficulty adjustment will make it an estimated 4.3% harder to mine.

Both a rise in the price of bitcoin and anticipation of cheaper power prices this year are beginning to erase previous sector sell-offs that had begun amid last year’s Q2 market rout.

Read more: Going Nuclear: Bitcoin Mining’s Potential Energy Future

Other sectors across the industry also posted positive gains Friday, with exchanges Coinbase (COIN) and Robin Hood (HOOD) up 15.7% and 7.8% respectively. COIN has continued to outperform both the broader tech sector and bitcoin, up an eye-watering 80% since the new year began.

Analyst fears over a global recession remain firmly entrenched, with several leading indicators now pointing to declining economic growth in the second quarter of this year.

The impact for risk-on assets, such as crypto, would likely result in further market sell-offs as traders seek to book profits and allocate capital into cash, large market cap equities and gold.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Bluefin possibly stands at an inflection point. The token is near an all-time low yet the protocol’s spot volume market share and derivatives exchange usage have been increasing month over month since its November launch. Given its current market position and the upcoming upgrades (for both Bluefin and SUI), there may be upside potential before the increased supply growth in December. However, strong opposition from existing competitors (like Cetus and Suilend), as well as new entrants (like Aftermath), pose key challenges to Bluefin’s medium-term success.

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”

article-image

Introducing garbled circuits for enhanced privacy and regulatory compliance

article-image

Ross Ulbricht was a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, powered by Bitcoin

article-image

Solana validators can reap benefits including payments, votes and community clout

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users

article-image

According to a legal filing, Galaxy Digital helped boost the price of LUNA while quietly selling its tokens