Bitcoin miners seem increasingly reluctant to sell their reserves. Despite the market downturn, the amount of unspent BTC held by minors continues to increase.
According to the on-chain analysis tool Glassnode, the amount of bitcoin held by miners is only 500 BTC from its all-time high.
Miners currently hold just under an all-time high of 1.778 million BTC. As a reminder, the last historic peak was reached in December 2020. Glassnode has explained that “these coins were given to miners as rewards for solving blocks, but they were never spent”.
Indeed, miners have started accumulating BTC since March 2020, following a massive sale that took place in the first two months of the same year.
Some believe that this data would lose its validity if the miners start selling everything at the same time, as they did earlier this year. That said, Bitcoin has also left exchanges in recent months, which is another sign of this accumulating trend.
Mining profitability is falling, but hash rate continues to rise
According to BitInfoCharts, mining profitability has fallen since mid-October and is currently $ 0.235 per day per TH / s (terahashes per second). That figure is down 52% from November 9 when it was $ 0.49 per day per TH / s. Profitability is currently at its lowest since the end of June, when hash rates fell due to the migration of miners from China.
That said, the hash rate is starting to pick up and stabilizes around 173.7 EH / s (exahashs per second). This indicator, which represents the computing power of the network, has gained 150% since it fell to 69 pe / s at the end of June.
According to BitInfoCharts, Bitcoin’s average hash rate is now just 14% off its all-time high 197 EH / s reached on May 13. On December 16, Glassnode has indicated that Bitcoin’s mining difficulty was only 3.5% below its all-time high. In addition, the data analysis platform clarified:
“It took 180 days for the hash rate to pick up, after a 52% drop caused by the Great Migration [exode des mineurs chinois]”.
The mining difficulty, which represents the complexity of the mathematical calculations required to solve a block and obtain rewards, has increased since mid-August. This increase in difficulty is the result of the increase in the number of minors competing for the rewards.
This December 20, BeInCrypto reported that some Chinese miners are continuing their activities despite the ban on crypto by Chinese authorities.
What price outlook for Bitcoin?
The price of BTC started the week down 2.2% on the day according to CoinGecko. As of this writing, the asset is trading at $ 46,000 after losing 8% in the past seven days.
The market’s No.1 cryptocurrency slipped below 200-day moving average support. In addition, the asset is approaching a “Death Cross” as the average of the fastest 50 days exceeds that of the slowest 200 days.
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