Miners were among the active depositors of BTC on Binance, joining the inflows from newly created whale wallets. Miner reserves remain high, but can still produce short-term selling pressure.
Miners are locking in short-term gains from BTC, while retaining their balance of 1.89M coins, including older wallets that may never move their assets. In the short term, Binance was the main venue for BTC deposits, as miners are currently producing coins at a profit.
Miner inflows to Binance remained high in November, moving over 71,000 BTC in the month to date. | Source: CryptoQuant.
Miners are operating under all-time high competitive conditions, while BTC remained relatively weak, trading at $104,115.
In early November, deposits peaked at 12,564 BTC flowing into Binance in a single day. Miner deposits also far outpace the recent purchases from treasury companies. Previously, all newly mined BTC was insufficient to meet demand.
Miners may be trying to lock in gains, as currently block production is profitable. Despite the low block reward, miners are using more efficient machines, allowing them to sell more coins for profit. The market is still capable of absorbing the BTC even at prices above $100,000.
Miners move down from all-time capacity record
Miners achieved new activity records in October, making BTC more competitive. Most of the coins produced went to the biggest pools. At the same time, mining was mostly a high-investment activity, after the creation of new mining data centers.
BTC difficulty is at an all-time peak, and has grown during most of the latest reassessment periods. As mining is highly competitive, there are few attempts to shut down capacity to achieve lower difficulty. New capacity is coming online, after miners modernized their fleets with the latest ASIC.
BTC miners have not seen any distressing conditions since July, as their cost of mining has also decreased. With more efficient machines, block production is once again competitive, while miners have achieved access to cheap electricity contracts. For miners, the last few months are among the year’s longest periods without signs of distress or mining BTC at a cost higher than the market price.
BTC exchange reserves remain low
Overall, despite the recent deposits, BTC exchange reserves remain low. Spot selling meets demand, as BTC is changing hands to new whale wallets.
Binance holds over 566K BTC in its reserves, a net growth of over 10K coins in a few weeks. However, even Binance’s reserves are lower compared to previous cycles.
Miners are also diverging in their reasons to sell. Some of the companies may be selling older coins, trying to pivot and finance new AI data centers.
Overall, miners have vastly different costs for producing coins. The older mining operations can go as low as $45,000 to produce a coin. Newer investments are producing BTC for as high as $117,000. Recent analysis suggests the disparity may lead to further consolidation in mining space.
