- Bitcoin miners are having a rather challenging February.
- SEC has recently taken an aggressive stance against crypto.
- H.C. Wainwright analyst still rates four BTC miners at “buy”.
Bitcoin miners had a fantastic January, but February is proving to be a bit more challenging for them.
BTC miners lost big last week
The 11 miners that H.C. Wainwright covers together produced 5,279 bitcoin in total last month and sold 4,278. For the month, the collective gain in their operating hash rate sat at 7.7%.
In February, though, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission turned more aggressive against the crypto companies. Last week, it ordered Kraken to terminate its crypto staking services in the United States.
Consequently, bitcoin prices slipped 5.2% in the week that ended on February 12th. But miners lost a significantly bigger 17.1% (median) even though the network hash rate climbed to 292 EH/s – a 9.5% week-over-week increase.
Miners that’re still worth buying
About a day after Kraken, the U.S. regulator also demanded that Paxos quits minting new BUSD (Binance USD).
Nonetheless, Mike Colonnese – an H.C. Wainwright analyst is convinced that such news don’t have a meaningful effect on miners other than the short-term price pressure. But he also said in a recent research note:
The concern is that recent enforcement by U.S. regulators and uncertainty around crypto legislation in the U.S. could push innovation and retail investors for the sector outside the U.S.
Ones that Colonnese still rates a “buy” include Riot Blockchain, Cleanspark, Cipher Mining, and Hive Blockchain Technologies.