Bitcoin reserves of miners reach an all-time low: 1.81 million bitcoins in the wallets of mining companies.
The bitcoin reserves held by miners have fallen to the lowest levels in the last 14 years, marking a 50% reduction from the all-time highs. Currently, the reserves held by miners amount to 1.81 million bitcoins, equivalent to about $125 billion. The decline coincides with growing institutional demand for bitcoin and the recent halving of daily production that occurred on April 20th.
According to on-chain analysis by CryptoQuant, the last time miners’ reserves were this low, the Bitcoin protocol was in its initial stages.
The decline in reserves is attributable to several factors, including rising mining costs and the need to sell mined bitcoins at profitable prices. With increasing mining difficulty, companies are incentivized to sell part of their reserves to support operations and invest in more efficient hardware.
Despite the decline in miners’ reserves, according to the latest report from Bitfinex, long-term hodlers are starting to buy bitcoin again at an increasingly steady pace. This behavior could mark the end of the consolidation phase and the beginning of a new accumulation phase.