The world of cryptocurrencies is developing rapidly. Regarding PoW consensus blockchains, investors are more concerned about Bitcoin mining operations. Also, miners face more and more difficulties in the process. In this context, it is important to note that the amount of Bitcoin held by crypto miners has recently reached a 10-year low. The chart below published by crypto research platform IntoTheBlock shows that miner accumulation is at its lowest levels in recent years.
IntoTheBlock: Bitcoin is thriving and miners play a minor role in it
Curiously, the amount of BTC held by miners has hit a 10-year low. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin hash rate was near record highs. The entire mining community only has a total of 1.95 million BTC, one of the lowest numbers since 2010.
Bitcoin hash rate and difficulty were near record levels in February. Bitcoin’s 7-day average hash rate was 191 EH/s. On February 17 this jumped to 220 EH/s. Thus, there was an increase of 15%. This increase in hash rate resulted in a roughly 4.8% increase in difficulty for February. Ergo, a blog on Luxor Technologies’ data platform Hashrate Index, noted:
Bitcoin miners were hashing at an all-time difficulty for about half the month, so less Bitcoins per unit hash rate. they were winning.
This pressure on miners’ margins has caused miners to “sell some of their BTC to cover their operating expenses.” Thus, a higher hash rate and difficulty reduced miner revenues.
February storm
In the top seven publicly traded North American miners, on average, Bitcoin production fell by about 8.6%. This was evident in the bar chart analysis below.
Why are miners worried?
Concerns arose after the last “crypto decree” of the US President, which we refer to as Kriptokoin.com. Joe Biden urged his management to study and report on the environmental costs and potential benefits associated with cryptocurrencies. Following this, Kevin O’Leary, head of O’Shares ETFs, announced that he has sold all of his crypto mining investments.
However, this is the month of March as the hash rate dropped by 1.5%. showed some mercy to the miners affected. At the time of writing, it stands at 189M TH/s. This is a potentially positive development for miners.
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