Bitcoin miners are selling their coins in an effort to keep pace with the various challenges facing the cryptocurrency sector, including falling prices, rising energy costs and increased competition.
Popular Bitcoin miners such as Bitfarms, Riot Blockchain and Core Scientific are among the companies that have announced sales, with the CEO of Bitfarms telling the public that the company is “no longer HODLing daily Bitcoin production.”
Bitcoin miners operate networks of computers to earn tokens by validating transactions on the blockchain. According to CoinMetrics data, these steadfast crypto- “HODLers” collectively hold about 800,000 Bitcoins.
According to Arcane Research’s analysis, several listed Bitcoin miners collectively sold more than 100% of their total output in May, while the value of Bitcoin fell by 45%.
Experts pointed out that increased rates despite Bitcoin’s decline is forcing many miners to sell their coins, and high energy prices are also hitting miners.
“Over the past six months, hash rate and mining difficulty have increased while price of Bitcoin has dropped. These are both negatives for existing miners as both work to compress margins,” said Joe Burnett, analysts at Bitcoin mining firm Blockware Solutions.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.