Bitcoin Miner Selloff Poses “Negligible Impact”, Quant Argues

January 31, 2024

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin miners have been selling recently, but this quant has argued that this selloff shouldn’t have much impact on the market.

Bitcoin Miner Reserve Has Registered A Decline Recently

In a CryptoQuant Quicktake post, an analyst discussed the latest selling pressure that the miners have been putting on the market. The indicator of interest here is the “miner reserve,” which keeps track of the total amount of Bitcoin that the miners combined hold in their wallets right now.

This metric can naturally provide information about the collective behavior of these chain validators. Generally, the miners withdraw their coins from their reserve when they want to sell, so a decline in the indicator can potentially have bearish consequences for the asset.

A rise in the metric, on the other hand, may be bullish for the cryptocurrency’s price as it suggests the miners as a whole are in accumulation mode at the moment.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin miner reserve over the past year:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin miner reserve has been on its way down since October, implying that this cohort has withdrawn a net amount of BTC from their wallets during this period.

This latest selloff from the miners has recently been a topic in the community, with many speculating about the possible bearish impact arising from it. The quant has a different opinion on the matter, however.

“The sell-off of Bitcoin reserves by miners, as discussed on X and various portals, is unfounded,” explains the analyst. To back this claim, the quant has pointed out the exact numbers involved here.

Before this selling started, the miner reserve had a value of around 1,84,997 BTC. Following the decline that the indicator has witnessed since then, the miners now hold about 1,833,222 BTC.

This represents a decrease of 12,755 BTC, which, although substantial on its own, doesn’t seem too large in the grand scheme of things, especially considering the size of the miner reserve itself. “The minimal amount of bitcoin sold has negligible impact on the market,” notes the analyst.

The above chart shows the data for the Bitcoin inflows and outflows being made by the miners. There have indeed been outflows taking place recently, which is why there has been talk of a selloff.

At the same time, the inflow transaction volume has also been at significant levels, making up for these outflows. This is the reason for the relatively small net decrease in the total miner reserve.