Ether (ETH) was not the only one that showed the highest profitability compared to Bitcoin in 2021. Mining stocks also outperformed the largest digital currency in terms of performance, Arcane Research said in a report.
Related: ETH turned out to be more productive than BTC in 2021
At the same time, analysts remind that investing in the mining industry is riskier than buying bitcoin. In addition to the volatility of BTC, other factors are putting pressure on crypto mining companies.
The index of shares of the 15 largest miners grew by 197% in 2021, while the return on bitcoin was 100%. The most successful company turned out to be Marathon, its capitalization growth since January has been colossal.
The Arcane Research report notes: "Marathon is Top Performer of 2021 with a 391% value gain. Marathon does not own data centers and leases space to host equipment. The cost of devices is much more volatile than the cost of data centers, which is why the price of Marathon shares is more volatile than that of companies with their centers."
However, this factor does not bother the Marathon management at all. The CEO of this company, Fred Thiel, said that Marathon is committed to decentralization, so its ecosystem can be called a full-fledged part of the bitcoin community.
Chinese miner Bit Digital, on the other hand, showed negative performance. The company's shares have dropped 56% since January 2021 amid the crackdown on the blockchain industry in China.
The completion of Bit Digital's migration to North America will help restore the company's capacity as early as 2022. Accordingly, the investment attractiveness of the giant should also improve, predicts Arcane Research.