A recent data survey by on-chain analytics firm, Glassnode, shows that the current increase in Bitcoin (BTC) price has caused a slowdown in miners selling off their BTC, as mining difficulty has seen consecutive 1% increases since the beginning of August.
Following the Luna crash earlier in May, miners began immediate liquidation of their Bitcoin (BTC) assets. According to the chart on Glassnode, miners sold over 600 and 400 coins at the peak on two separate days, counting with only direct transfers.
However, in recent weeks, the number of coins mined and sold to exchanges declined. The decrease corresponds to Bitcoin's recent price increase, indicating less stress on miners.
The winter market began right after the Luna crash. Since then, miners have had a hard time mining Bitcoin (BTC). All mining equipment manufactured before 2019 lost profitability as soon as Bitcoin fell below $20,000. As a result, mining companies began to experience financial difficulties.
Top crypto mining companies like Compass Mining and Core Scientific, are just two out of the many mining companies that have had to sell most of their holdings or equipment to settle bills.
Miners may be feeling a bit relieved with the recent increase in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), with the hope that the worst is already behind us in terms of mining difficulties.
However, that relief could be short-lived after mining difficulty potentially increased to more than 1% on August 18 — the second increase since the beginning of the month.
The last time mining difficulty had consecutively increased was in April 2022, right before the Luna collapse triggered the bear market.
Before that event, when Bitcoin surged to peak levels in 2021 and the total network hash rate was relatively low, miners benefited from keeping the mined digital currency on their cash balance.
