Bitcoin miner stocks drop 20–40% as Bernstein lowers forecasts
Miners face harsh correction
Analysts at Bernstein have revised their price targets for leading Bitcoin mining companies — IREN, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms — stating that these stocks have shown the worst performance since the beginning of the year.
The firm lowered its price targets for IREN from $26 to $20, CleanSpark from $30 to $20, and Riot from $22 to $19. According to the analysts, the drop in stock prices is likely to trigger further increases in global hashrate and capital outflows due to mounting equipment upgrade costs.
Miners face harsh correction
Bitcoin miners have largely missed out on the asset’s market capitalization growth at the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. Institutional interest has instead focused on the implementation of artificial intelligence systems in data centers, the report notes.
“This year, Bitcoin miners have suffered a painful correction (down 20–40%) while the cryptocurrency itself has fallen by only 10%,” the report states.
Despite the downturn, Bernstein maintained its 2025 price targets for Marathon Digital (MARA) and Core Scientific (CORZ) at $23 and $17, respectively. However, MARA shares have already lost 25% over the past month, and CORZ is down 31%, currently trading at approximately $12.50 and $8.50 — nearly half of the target valuations.
Price dynamics of MARA shares over the last 30 days. Source: Trading View
Earlier, analysts from U.S. investment bank JPMorgan reported that in the first two weeks of March, Bitcoin miners earned an average daily block reward of approximately $48,300 — 11% less than in February.
As we wrote. the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has formally stated that proof-of-work (PoW) mining does not constitute the offer and sale of securities, provided it meets specific criteria.
