Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies in the US briefly reached a combined market capitalization of $22.8 billion on June 15 due to a surge in their stock prices over the month.

According to a recent JP Morgan analysis, this growth is driven by an increase in their share of the network hashrate and their expansion into artificial intelligence (AI) data center ventures.

As of June 15, Marathon Digital led the pack among US-listed Bitcoin miners with a market cap of $5.3 billion, followed by CleanSpark at $4 billion, and Riot Platforms at $3 billion.

During the first half of June, stock prices of 14 US-listed mining companies experienced significant increases, with Core Scientific (CORZ), TeraWulf (WULF), and Iris Energy (IREN) showing the most notable gains of 117%, 80%, and 70% respectively since June 1.

However, Argo Blockchain (ARBK) was an exception, seeing a 7% decline in its share price over the same period.

The proposed acquisition and strategic partnership between Core Scientific and AI cloud provider CoreWeave played a key role in driving up the collective market cap of mining companies. CoreWeave offered $1.6 billion to acquire Core Scientific earlier in June, representing a 55% premium over its market price, though the bid was ultimately rejected.

Many other Bitcoin miners are also exploring diversification strategies into AI services, leveraging their compute power for AI network development.

JP Morgan analysts attributed the increase in market cap to US miners gaining a larger share of Bitcoin’s network hashrate since the April halving. Despite an overall 5% decline in network hashrate post-halving, US-listed miners increased their share to 23.8% from 22.9% in May and 21% in April, as less efficient operations exited the market.

The report also noted that these companies now trade at approximately 2.25 times their proportional share of the block reward opportunity, indicating improved market valuation compared to earlier this year.

Looking ahead, JP Morgan expects US miners to produce around 650,000 Bitcoin over the current four-year halving cycle. They anticipate an increase in hashprice in the near term as network hashrate adjusts.

Despite Bitcoin’s current low hashprice—15% below bear market lows of December 2022 and 45% below pre-halving levels—the analysts believe these levels are unsustainable and anticipate a recovery in the coming weeks.