For the fourth quarter of 2024, JPMorgan (JPM) changed its Bitcoin miner price goals and estimates to take into account changes in the Bitcoin price and the network hashrate. The bank lowered its price target but the new prediction still shows that the price will go up 70%.
Iren is JPM’s top pick in the sector, from neutral to overweight. It lowered its price target from $15 to $12. The stock has dropped 28.3% in 2025 because Bitcoin and other crypto coins have been having a hard time because of the Trump administration’s unclear policies.
This is no surprise. After Donald Trump won a second term as president in November, crypto and stocks related to it originally went up, but most of them have already erased their gains.
Analyst Reginald Smith wrote in a study note that he still views Iren as the lowest-cost publicly traded Bitcoin miner even though the price has dropped. He added, “We rate shares Overweight, as shares have been overly punished YTD, and think this makes for an attractive entry point to gain exposure to a low-cost operator with HPC optionality.”
In addition, ten out of twelve experts who follow LSEG say that Iren is a buy or a strong buy. The average price target has a huge 221% upside. Shares also went up around 2% before the bell following the upgrade.
Meanwhile, early trade saw the price of the shares go up 2.7% to $7.23. However, the price has come down to $7.
JPM rates on other miners
The bank retracted its $8 price goal for Cipher Mining (CIFR) and changed its rating from overweight to neutral. The price went down 3% to $3.10.
Next, the bank said that Riot Platforms (RIOT) and CleanSpark (CLSK) are overweight, and they lowered their price goals to $13 and $12, respectively. It went down 0.5% to $7.82. CleanSpark went up 0.6% to $8.15.
On the other hand, JPM kept its neutral review on MARA Holdings (MARA) and lowered its price target for the stock from $23 to $18. The price of the shares went up by 0.5% to $13.14.
JP Morgan also changed how much it thought miners’ Bitcoin holdings were worth. MicroStrategy, which is known for its bitcoin accumulation strategy, used to trade at a premium of about 2 times the value of the bitcoins it held. However, the bank cut the price premium for Bitcoin miners to 1.5 times.
The bank said that mining stocks have been hurt because high-performance computing (HPC) deals have taken longer than expected to go through, and the costs of mining have gone up. However, they advised that the drop in these stocks makes it a good time for investors to get in, especially those who want to bet on the growth of data centers through Bitcoin miners.
What JPM was considering
The bank lowered its price targets for big miners by 19% to 29%. This is mainly because it thought the price of Bitcoin would go down and network computing power would rise.
The five Bitcoin miners under JP Morgan’s coverage have collectively lost more than 20% of their market value in 2024, compared to an 11% drop in Bitcoin’s price. The drop came after a rally around the U.S. election. Slower-than-expected high-performance computer deals and worsening mining economics hurt miners the most.
When JPMorgan calculates a miner’s worth, it considers three main factors: their mining activities, their land and power assets, and their BTC holdings.
According to JPM, network hashrate, which shows how hard it is to mine, would grow by 200 exahashes per second (EH/s) each year. This is less than the last two years’ growth, but it is still a big number. The bank also said that lower price goals were due to a 10% drop in the price it thought Bitcoin would reach and an 80% rise in its predictions for annual network hashrate growth.
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