Bitcoin has been forced to make a retest of the $27,000 level in the past day as the miners have participated in a large selloff.
Bitcoin Miners Have Sold 20,000 BTC In Past Week
According to data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock, BTC miners have done some significant selling during the last week. The relevant indicator here is the “miner reserve,” which keeps track of the total amount of Bitcoin that the miners as a whole are carrying in their wallets.
When the value of this metric goes up, it means that these chain validators are making deposits into their addresses currently. Such a trend suggests that the miners are accumulating right now, which can naturally be bullish for the asset’s price.
On the other hand, drawdowns in the indicator imply the miners are taking a net number of coins out of their wallets. Generally, the main reason why this cohort makes transfers like these is for selling, so this kind of trend can have bearish consequences for the cryptocurrency.
Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin miner reserve over the past few months:
Looks like the value of the metric has been sharply going down in recent days | Source: IntoTheBlock on X
As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin miner reserve has observed a plunge over the past week, implying that these chain validators have been withdrawing coins from their wallets.
In total, this group has transferred 20,000 BTC ($544.6 million at the current exchange rate) out of their wallets during this plummet. This selloff is the largest that the miners have participated in since April.
Miners selling their coins isn’t exactly a rare occurrence, as this cohort has running costs like electricity bills that they have to finance somehow, and for many miners, selling the coins that they are mining is the simplest way.
The scale of such regular selloffs usually isn’t that much, though, and the market is able to absorb them just fine. In the current case, however, the miners have sold a particularly large amount, which can certainly be a concerning sign for the asset.
Bitcoin has registered some decline during the past few days, which may have at least partially been induced by this selloff from the miners. During the last 24 hours, the asset has plunged deeper and has made a retest of the $27,000 mark.
As for why the miners may have decided to sell now, the fact that the asset’s prices have been better on average this month so far than in September could have played a role.
The miners selling here might be those who don’t believe the cryptocurrency would see a significant rally in the near future, so they have decided to exit at this mildly profitable opportunity.
BTC Price
Bitcoin had retested the $27,000 level earlier in the day, but the asset has since seen a slight jump as it’s now floating around the $27,200 mark.
BTC has been going down over the past few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Shutterstock.com, charts from TradingView.com, IntoTheBlock.com