Bitcoin miners sell 10,600 BTC worth $455.8 million – what happened?
3 min readThe world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Bitcoin, is experiencing a massive sell-off caused by none other than its miners.
🚨 #Bitcoin Miners in Selling Mode: Recent on-chain data from @cryptoquant_com indicates a substantial increase in selling activity by #BTC miners. In just the last 24 hours, they've offloaded nearly 10,600 $BTC, valued at approximately $455.8 million! pic.twitter.com/JEtasWfR6N
— Ali (@ali_charts) January 17, 2024
Crypto market expert Ali Martinez, who captured the data on his official – have rejected.
Popular on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant confirmed this information and noted that Bitcoin miners are actively selling their BTC hoards. According to the platform, the total net inflows of crypto exchanges have increased by 130.45% on average over the last seven days.
However, CryptoQuant also notes a decline in BTC reserves on exchanges, suggesting easing selling pressure across the crypto landscape. Apparently more investors are withdrawing their digital assets from exchanges and storing them individually.
Bitcoin has gone through various cycles in recent months. According to reports of a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) in early 2024, the leading cryptocurrency crossed the $30,000 mark and eventually reached $45,000 before experiencing a reversal.
At the time of publishing this article, BTC is finding support in the $41,000 to $43,000 range, although the possibility of a downtrend cannot be ruled out. Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency Globether continues to have positive momentum supported by several factors.
An important factor is the BTC halving planned for April 2024 . This event will reduce the block rewards miners receive by 50%, dropping from 6.25 to 3,125 BTC.
Given low supply and increasing demand, BTC is expected to surpass $45,000 in the near future.
Another positive development is the SEC’s historic approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF, announced for January 10, 2024 .
Looks like they took the link down for now
But I took a screen recording of the full PDF from SEC's website showing approval for all 11 spot bitcoin ETFs
(Pause to read) pic.twitter.com/13wQ1Gx3dc
— Jacquelyn Melinek (@jacqmelinek) January 10, 2024
This event marks a pivotal moment for the cryptocurrency industry as it essentially introduced the deflationary decentralized asset into the traditional financial landscape. This significantly increases acceptance and market interest in BTC and other similar assets.
Sales? No problem
Despite the seemingly negative outlook in miner sales, the Bitcoin network is still experiencing strong demand and an overflowing storage pool.
According to a post on X by Mati, CEO of Quantum Economics, the BTC storage pool (mempool) is currently at full capacity.
Source: X/Mati
The chart above shows that the amount of data awaiting confirmation is currently twice the amount at the previous all-time high (ATH).
Bitcoin is overflooding!!!
The mempool, which is where transactions wait to be confirmed by miners is completely full. This chart shows the amount of data awaiting confirmation, which is currently more than double the previous all time high. pic.twitter.com/E8tnRsYi4U
— Mati (@MatiGreenspan) January 8, 2024
The main factor contributing to this unusual event is the Bitcoin Ordinals inscription service, which allows metadata to be recorded on individual satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin).
However, Mati noted that BTC Ordinals are not yet operating at full capacity. He revealed that only 100,000 enrollments have been recorded since the beginning of 2024.
The BTC network is therefore enjoying organic growth without external forces having a major influence on it.
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