Bitcoin miners are reselling their holdings as BTC struggles to maintain the $70,000 level. Data from CryptoQuant shows that BTC flows from miners' wallets to exchanges reached a two-month high last weekend, a sell sign.
“Miners were competing for 900 BTC per day less than two months ago, but now they are competing for 450 BTC per day across the network,” said HC Wainwright analyst Mike Colonnese. “The mining economy is down 45% from pre-halving levels, so market “We're not surprised to see some of that sales force.”
CryptoQuant data shows that hourly BTC transfers from miners to exchanges reached over 3,000 Bitcoins on June 9. The next day, miners sold 1,200 BTC in the over-the-counter markets.
Bitcoin price dropped to around $66,000 on June 13. BTC price has struggled to surpass the $70,000 level since breaking its record high of $73,797.68 on March 14.
“The sell-off occurred in the context of lower revenues following the halving,” said Julio Moreno, research manager at CryptoQuant. He added that daily BTC miner revenues are around $35 million today, down 55% from the 2024 peak reached in March.
The Bitcoin network's total daily transaction fees are more than 44% lower than before the halving. Despite record levels of transactions on the network, the median transaction fee remained low. The hash rate of the Bitcoin network has barely dropped since the halving on April 19, indicating that the same amount of computing power is competing for a decreasing amount of block rewards, putting additional pressure on miners' profitability.
Colonnese said major publicly traded miners are doing well after the halving. His top companies are CleanSpark and Iren, formerly Iris Energy: “We estimate that the group currently produces over 50% gross margin on $70,000 worth of BTC, while the entire cash cost of producing one Bitcoin for the group averages $45,000.”
While CleanSpark was down 19% this quarter, Iren was up over 140%. They gained 55% and 82% respectively throughout the year.
*This is not investment advice.
