According to a report by CoinDesk, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) released a research report on Thursday showing that the current computing power and energy consumption of the Bitcoin (BTC) network indicate that the mining cost of a single Bitcoin has been adjusted from $50,000 to $45,000.
The bank previously predicted that less profitable miners would exit the network and there would be a significant drop in computing power as the growth rate of Bitcoin supply slowed due to halving of mining rewards. JPMorgan analysts stated that although the timing was delayed, this situation has now occurred.
The report pointed out that the delay may be due to the newly launched Runes protocol on the network (a new token creation method in the Bitcoin ecosystem), which temporarily caused transaction fees to soar, prolonging the survival time of some miners. JPMorgan analysts noted that this temporarily boosted miners’ income immediately after the halving of Bitcoin, as Bitcoin miners were able to offset the loss of issuance rewards due to halving by the surge in transaction fees, thereby keeping their block rewards almost unchanged.
However, with the fading of the Runes craze and the disappearance of temporary boosts for miners, the decline in energy consumption on the network exceeded the decline in computing power, indicating that inefficient non-profit miners have exited and formed a feedback loop with Bitcoin prices. Due to several previously identified headwinds, including a lack of positive catalysts and a weakening of retail momentum, JPMorgan foresees limited upward potential for Bitcoin in the short term.
