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Miners have seemingly started offloading their Bitcoin holdings as the fourth halving approaches, CryptoQuant notes.
As Bitcoin (BTC) maintains its bull run and the fourth halving nears, miners have started selling their holdings in the cryptocurrency, monetizing their business operations to buy more equipment for profitability. In an X post on Mar. 13, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju published a graph of miners’ selling activity since 2012, noting that this time “bull market would continue unless ETF [exchange-traded fund] inflow slows down.”
Miners started selling $BTC.
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) March 13, 2024
Bull market would continue unless ETF inflow slows down, imo. pic.twitter.com/jdxmvnj9jV
In a follow-up post, the CryptoQuant CEO noted that U.S. mining companies are not the main Bitcoin sellers so far, suggesting that the top sellers “are likely offshore or older miners.”
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U.S. mining companies aren't major #Bitcoin sellers; the sellers are likely offshore or older miners. pic.twitter.com/H6lffwviAR
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) March 14, 2024
Bitcoin miners often sell their holdings before halvings to secure profits, mitigate price volatility risks, diversify their assets, and reinvest in mining infrastructure, leading to increased market volatility leading up to and following halvings.
Analysts, however, are confident that even the increased selling activity by miners is unlikely to impede Bitcoin’s upward momentum, given the substantial inflow of fresh capital through spot ETFs. Coinbase Research analysts have suggested that the current price surge “is only the beginning of a longer bull run,” adding that “multi-billion dollar net inflows [into spot Bitcoin ETFs] in just two months have irrevocably altered the landscape.”
Despite Bitcoin miners achieving record daily revenues of $78.6 million, surpassing the previous peak set during the 2021 bull market, the performance of public mining companies paints a different picture.
Hashrate Index data reveals that out of the 26 public Bitcoin miners, only three have posted positive returns year-to-date: CleanSpark (CLSK) with a 51.5% gain, Investview (INVU) with a 25.7% increase, and Northern Data (NB2.DEX) with a 7.52% rise. As crypto.news reported earlier, Bitcoin’s fourth halving is anticipated to arrive in mid-April this year, cutting the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Read more: Hut 8 shuts down Bitcoin mining site in Canada, citing energy costs