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 Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ:BITF) 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).

Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ:BITF)

Analyst Upside: 102.38% 

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 14

Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ:BITF) is a leading industry in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry and is a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company based in Canada. It owns, develops, and operates vertically integrated mining farms with in-house management, Company-owned electrical engineering, on-site technical repair centers, and installation services. It operates in the cryptocurrency mining segment and owns 11 farms located in the United States, Canada, Paraguay, and Argentina. The firm also operates server farms that deal with blockchain transactions.

The company holds a competitive advantage in the industry due to its strategic approach and energy portfolio. It boasts the largest, internationally diversified energy contracts portfolio in the Bitcoin data center business, which it has managed to grow organically. Its exposure to different sources of energy and providers, geographies, climates, and government authorities significantly de-risks its portfolio, leading nearly every market it operates in at scale.

Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ:BITF) is revamping its organizational structure to better match its scale of operations and future goals. 2024 proved to be a transformational year for the company, as it upgraded 10 data centers and added 3 new data centers to its portfolio. It unracked more than 50,000 older gen miners and racked over 46,000 new miners, increasing its hashrate by 83% to 11.9 exahash in fiscal Q3 2024. It also reached its year-end efficiency goal three months ahead of schedule, improving its efficiency by 40% from 35 watts per terahash to 21 watts per terahash and highlighting its strong operational model.

Apart from these quantitative improvements, Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ:BITF) announced the acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining, marking the largest acquisition between two public companies in the Bitcoin mining sector yet. It also significantly enhanced its Leadership team and Board of Directors, and is on the path to improving the overall functioning of the company.

Overall, BITF ranks 2nd 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 BITF 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.