Miners forced to sell Bitcoin as rising costs squeeze profitability
Miners have no choice but to sell more Bitcoin during the current downturn, adding to the selling pressure from the recent disappointment that the government won’t buy new Bitcoin for the reserve, plus macroeconomic uncertainty due to tariffs.
According to CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is struggling to bounce back from its current lows due to (among other things) selling pressure from miners. The analyst pointed out that as BTC’s price dropped to $77,700, there was a significant increase in the number of miners moving their BTC to exchanges.
Miners are forced sellers, which means they have to sell their BTC to pay bills, which affects market liquidity. Furthermore, the fact that miners are selling more Bitcoin even when the price is low suggests that they are under financial pressure, according to the analyst. The likely reason for this is that the average cost of Bitcoin mining has been steadily increasing.
If enough people buy the Bitcoin offloaded by miners, the price could stabilize and potentially recover. On the flip side, if miners keep selling but demand doesn’t pick up, BTC’s price will likely drop further, all other things being equal.
Currently, the latter scenario looks more likely, as analysts expect Bitcoin to suffer a deeper retracement toward the $70,000 range. For example, Arthur Hayes recently said that “BTC likely bottoms around $70K,” but pointed out that a 36% correction from its all-time high at $110K is normal in a bull market.
