Bitcoin miners sold 60% less BTC in July as crypto market volatility eases

by James · August 16, 2022

After a difficult period that reduced the prices of many of its digital assets, the cryptocurrency market appears to be slowly regaining its strength, easing the selling pressure from public Bitcoin (BTC) miners as the price of the virgin token nears $25,000.

Specifically, public miners sold 6,500 of their Bitcoin holdings in July, compared to around 14,600 the month before, when they were forced to sell their BTC on a large scale to keep operations going. Exciting research reported on August 15.

*BTC sold by public miners per month since the start of 2022. Source:* *Jaran Mellerud*

As a result, BTC sales by listed miners have more than halved between the two months, falling close to 58%. However, it is still higher than in May, when public miners first faced the plunge in mining profitability at a larger level.

Major BTC dumping started in May

In May, Bitcoin miners shocked the community by selling more than 100% of their output. In June, public miners sold four times as much as in May, dumping nearly 400% of their output amid dramatically bearish market conditions.

According to Jaran Mellerud at Arcane Research, although the figures from July show that sales have continued, they are “not nearly as high as during the mining bloodbath earlier this summer”.

The analyst explained this change by highlighting “the dark side of the ‘hold at all costs’ strategy”:

“The dark side of the ‘hold at all costs’ strategy, which has become apparent now, is that the lower the Bitcoin price goes, the more likely miners following this strategy are to sell their Bitcoin.”

In other words, as Bitcoin recovered 26% of its price in July, public miners could take a breather and ease the selloff, even if it “continued to a significant degree,” as Mellerud expected.

What awaits public miners in the future?

Currently, the flagship digital asset is experiencing a moderate two-month-old price uptrend despite a short-term price correction, which crypto trading expert Michaël van de Poppe does not see as alarming, Finbold previously reported.

At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $24,043, down 0.07% on the day but up 0.96% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data obtained on August 15.

Given that the price is also up 11.95% compared to 30 days ago, it could potentially signal a further reduction in selling pressure on public miners.

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