KEY POINTS
- Bitcoin miners sold 1,200 BTC on Monday, marking the highest daily selling volume since late March
- Marathon Digital sold off 1,000 Bitcoins Tuesday, and the sale was 'likely to cover expenses'
- The industry has been feeling the impact of the Bitcoin halving in April that cut mining rewards in half
Miners of the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap are selling their reserves, the latest data revealed, suggesting that miners may be feeling the bite of the April 20 halving.
There are new signs of "Bitcoin miner capitulation," Julio Moreno, the Head of Research at cryptocurrency market intelligence firm CryptoQuant, said in a Tuesday report. "Yesterday we saw the largest daily miner selling volume since late March: 1,200 Bitcoin," he said.
Sings of #Bitcoin miner capitulation:
— Julio Moreno (@jjcmoreno) June 11, 2024
yesterday we saw the largest daily miner selling volume since late March: 1,200 Bitcoin.
Some big mining companies have been selling a portion of their reserves.
These are Bitcoin being sold OTC, not in exchanges. pic.twitter.com/KhkHmmTDBo
He went on to reveal that some of the huge Bitcoin mining firms have been selling "a portion of their reserves" and the digital currencies are being dumped OTC (over the counter) instead of in exchanges.
CryptoQuant further expounded on Moreno's report Wednesday, saying the movement of BTC out of mining pools to exchanges also reached a two-month high on June 9.
Among the key takeaways in CryptoQuant's report is the significant sale by Marathon Digital, one of the most prominent BTC mining companies worldwide. Marathon dumped 1,000 Bitcoins on Tuesday, "likely to cover expenses," as per CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju.
Marathon Digital, the largest #Bitcoin mining company, sold 1K $BTC yesterday, likely to cover expenses, marking the highest daily OTC volume since late March.
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) June 11, 2024
h/t @jjcmoreno pic.twitter.com/jM2C2TN8sN
The digital assets market research firm told Decrypt in a report that miners are "underpaid because the block reward has fallen more than difficulty." The halving left miners being "extremely" underpaid in May, though things have brightened up a bit in June, the market expert said.
News of the reserves sales of Bitcoin mining firms comes amid the digital asset's continuing struggles to reach its mid-March all-time high of $73,000 following the April 20 halving that split mining rewards by 50%.
Bitcoin prices dipped to $66,000 at one point Tuesday after on-chain data revealed that U.S. spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw net outflows of $200 million, led by Grayscale's GBTC. While it saw no outflows Tuesday, BlackRock's super popular IBIT didn't see any inflows either.
Aside from volatile BTC prices, some of the largest key players in the crypto mining industry have also been struggling with their own issues, including Bitfarms, which is attempting to block Riot Platforms' bid for a hostile takeover.
Riot accused Bitfarms of poor governance, saying there was a need for change within the mining firm. However, Bitfarms said Riot's acquisition offer was an undervaluation, moving forward with a "poison pill" that could prevent Riot from completing its $950 million acquisition offer.
Meanwhile, things could be looking up for the industry, at least for American miners. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said he wants all the remaining unmined Bitcoins in the world to be mined in the United States, so the country can be "energy dominant."
He made the statement after hosting some crypto mining executives, where he supposedly expressed how he was a "huge fan" of the world's first decentralized digital asset.
