The cryptocurrency industry is once again in the middle of a boom cycle, spearheaded by the launch of the first spot crypto exchange-traded funds and the transition to a more crypto-friendly U.S. president in Donald Trump.
Most top cryptocurrencies have performed extremely well as of late, and rising crypto prices mean rising margins for crypto miners. In fact, some crypto mining stocks have been among the best-performing investments in the entire market in the past year. Cryptocurrency miners remain extremely volatile and risky investments, but speculators are hoping these seven top crypto mining stocks can maintain their bullish momentum:
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (MARA)
Marathon Digital is a U.S. Bitcoin (BTC) mining company that operates its own mining pool, invests in mining hardware, builds custom firmware and designs mining infrastructure. The company aims to improve mining efficiency by integrating its own technology. In the most recent quarter, Marathon reported a 35% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 93% increase in energized hash rate, a measure of computational power. In addition to mining 2,070 BTC in the quarter, Marathon used the proceeds of a $300 million offering of convertible senior notes to purchase an additional 6,210 BTC, bringing its total holdings up to 26,747 BTC.
Core Scientific Inc. (CORZ)
Core Scientific operates custom-built facilities for digital asset mining and blockchain infrastructure, software solutions and other services. Its mining segment is focused on Bitcoin mining for its own account, and its hosting segment includes hosting and blockchain infrastructure services for third-party Bitcoin miners across eight operational data centers. Core emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January under a restructuring plan that cut the company’s debt by $400 million. Last quarter, Core mined 1,115 BTC, down 62% from a year ago. Core said the drop was partially due to the Bitcoin halving in 2024 and partially due to network difficulty.
Riot Platforms Inc. (RIOT)
Riot Platforms is a U.S. Bitcoin mining company focused on growing its hash rate and infrastructure capacity. In the most recent quarter, Riot reported 1,104 BTC produced, maintaining its production on a year-over-year basis despite the Bitcoin halving. The company kept all of its mined Bitcoin on its balance sheet in the quarter and holds 31.4 BTC per 1 million shares of stock. The company ended the quarter with a hash rate of 28 exahashes per second (EH/s), up 159% from a year ago. The company also maintained a 42% gross margin even after the halving.
CleanSpark Inc. (CLSK)
CleanSpark is a Bitcoin mining and energy technology company. In October, CleanSpark reported the company reached an operational hash rate of 30 EH/s and said its goal is to reach the 50 EH/s mark in 2025. As of the end of October, CleanSpark was mining more than 650 BTC per month and had a total Bitcoin reserve of 8,701 BTC. The company has a deployed fleet of more than 196,000 mining machines and operates multiple data centers that primarily run on low-carbon power. CleanSpark also recently completed an acquisition of miner GRIID Infrastructure.
TeraWulf Inc. (WULF)
TeraWulf is a U.S. Bitcoin miner focused on clean crypto mining. The company says its current Bitcoin production is powered by more than 91% zero-carbon energy. Last quarter, TeraWulf reported its operational self-mining capacity grew 100% to 10 EH/s. The company mined 555 Bitcoin in the quarter, down 43.4% from a year ago. Power cost per self-mined Bitcoin also rose from $9,322 in Q3 2023 to $30,448 per BTC, which currently trades for about $95,000 per coin. However, revenue was up 42.8% in the quarter. TeraWulf also recently completed the sale of its 25% equity interest in its Nautilus joint venture and announced an inaugural $200 million share buyback program.
Hut 8 Mining Corp. (HUT)
Hut 8 is a Bitcoin miner and energy infrastructure operator with self-mining, managed services, hosting and traditional data center operations throughout North America. The company’s portfolio includes 10 Bitcoin mining sites in Alberta, New York and Texas; five high-performance computing data centers in British Columbia and Ontario; four power generation assets in Ontario; and one non-operational site in Alberta. The company recently reported 234 Bitcoin mined last quarter and 9,106 BTC held in reserve. Hut 8 also has a 15 EH/s colocation partnership with Bitmain that includes the planned 2025 deployment of Bitmain’s next-generation miners.
Cipher Mining Inc. (CIFR)
Cipher Mining is a technology company focused on developing and operating Bitcoin mining data centers in the U.S. Cipher says upgrades to its Odessa, Texas, site will bring the company’s total self-mining hash rate up to about 13.5 EH/s by the end of 2024. The company reported 95,459 BTC on its balance sheet as of the end of last quarter, up about 600% from a year ago. Cipher recently completed acquisitions of Texas data center sites in Barber Lake and Reveille. Cipher now has an active portfolio and options for development totaling 2.5 gigawatts of capacity.