U.S. Bitcoin miners sell 15,000 coins over the past five months

Bitcoin mining companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges have accelerated selling amid a bear market in the crypto-asset space. Since October last year, they have offloaded more than 15,000 coins into the market.

According to data analytics platform TheEnergyMag on the 6th (local time), five major listed miners—Core Scientific (CORZ), CleanSpark (CLSK), Riot (RIOT), Bitdeer (BTDR) and Canaan (CANG)—sold a total of more than 15,000 bitcoins from October last year through February this year.

In particular, in February alone—when Bitcoin’s average price fell to around $70,000—they sold roughly 6,100 coins, the highest monthly total in the past five months. A substantial portion of February’s selling was accounted for by Canaan (CANG).

In October and November last year, when Bitcoin was trading above $90,000, monthly sales were only about 1,300 and 1,500 coins, respectively. However, as prices began to trend lower, sales rose to 3,100 coins in December, increased further to 3,600 in January this year, and then surged to 6,100 in February. In other words, the lower Bitcoin’s price fell, the more coins they sold into the market.

This trend is seen as reflecting miners’ financial conditions. Regardless of Bitcoin’s price moves, fixed costs such as electricity bills, labor costs and debt servicing continue to accrue. When per-coin profitability deteriorates, the business model effectively forces them to liquidate more holdings to maintain cash flow. Indeed, CleanSpark said in a recent operations report that it immediately sold 97.4% of the Bitcoin it produced in February, securing $36.65 million in cash.