We recently published a list of 8 Best Crypto and Blockchain Stocks To Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR) stands against other best crypto and blockchain stocks to buy according to analysts.
The Global Blockchain Technology Market
The global blockchain technology market is expected to undergo significant growth in the coming years. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global blockchain technology market was valued at $17.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59.9% between 2023 and 2030. This growth is anticipated to take the market to a valuation of $469.49 billion by the end of the forecast period.
The increasing adoption of blockchain technology in the financial and retail sectors is one of the primary drivers behind this growth trajectory, with another being the expanding acceptance of cryptocurrencies across the globe. Additional propellers such as Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) services are further buoying the sector. BaaS services allow small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to explore blockchain applications without bringing in the complexity of in-house development.
Cryptocurrencies have played a pivotal role in the trends in the blockchain industry, incentivizing blockchain infrastructure development and boosting innovation in privacy and scalability. Diverse blockchain applications are emerging in the market, including supply chain management, trade finance, cross-border payments, lot lineage/provenance, and identity management.
Blockchain and Crypto: the Golden Post-Election Scenario
Blockchain technology enables the existence of cryptocurrency, among other things. Like a digital ledger, it records and confirms cryptocurrency trades. Behind the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is a blockchain called the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin has been regularly hitting fresh records post-election. Other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, the favorite coin of strong Trump supporter Elon Musk, are also posting gains, as reported by BBC.
According to analysts, much of these recent gains are due to an anticipated crypto-friendly nature of the upcoming Trump administration, which may translate into more regulatory clarity but also some leeway. This may include a potential national strategic bitcoin reserve or stockpile, and supportive regulations for the industry.
On November 11, MacKenzie Sigalos appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to talk about Bitcoin’s post-election rally. She said that most Bitcoin miners are seeing double-digital percentage gains, painting a positive picture for Bitcoin and blockchain stocks. The wider crypto market is also seeing outsized gains.
Sigalos reminded that Donald Trump promised the mining of all future Bitcoin in the US, pledging to rapidly build out the country’s energy production and transmission infrastructure, which she claims is a great thing for power-hungry miners. This is one of the multiple commitments made by the President to the crypto industry on the campaign trail, along with firing SEC Chair Gary Gensler and launching a national crypto stockpile. Overall, the administration is anticipated to be crypto-friendly, painting a favorable picture for investors.
Our Methodology
We sifted through online rankings and ETFs to list the top crypto and blockchain stocks. We then selected 8 stocks with the highest upside potentials that were also the most popular among elite hedge funds. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their analysts’ upside potential as of November 23, 2024. We also included the number of hedge fund holders for each company as of fiscal Q3 2024, sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A close-up of a laptop with a Bitcoin ecosystem monitor running in the background.
Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR)
Analyst Upside: 9.49%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 13
Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR) takes the eighth spot on our list of the 8 best crypto and blockchain stocks to buy according to analysts and is a prominent player in the blockchain space. It specializes in industrial-scale Bitcoin mining, and is dedicated to enhancing and fortifying the critical infrastructure of the Bitcoin network in the US.
The company has significant experience in the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency industries, and leverages extensive expertise from various fields, including technology, fintech, energy, and finance. It is rapidly evolving its business model to become a developer of HPC data centers with a natural built-in offtake through Bitcoin mining for prospective sites. According to the company’s fiscal Q3 2024 earnings, it is opportunistically investing in greenfield development sites, with its primary intent being their development as HPC data centers.
Since these sites are located in Texas, they will prove to be excellent sites for Bitcoin mining due to the company’s proven ability to manage power curtailment. The company is continuing to innovate in both the HPC and Bitcoin mining space. It is in the middle of a significant expansion of its Bitcoin mining business, and is expecting major growth in the near future with its new sites. It expects its self-mining capacity to grow to 13.5 exahash per second, with a fleet-wide efficiency of 18.9 joules per terahash.
Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR) is managing a significant Bitcoin inventory, holding 1,508 at the end of fiscal Q3 of 2024. It holds a competitive edge in the Bitcoin mining industry for its competitive all-in weighted average power price of $0.027 per kilowatt hour.
Overall, CIFR ranks 8th on our list of best crypto and blockchain stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of blockchain stocks, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CIFR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.