Public Miners Stock Up BTC Reserves
40k BTC for the first time since May 2022
UPDATE: This post has been updated with hodl details of Marathon and HIVE for January
According to the new Bitfinex report citing on-chain data analyzed by CryptoQuant, the outflow of reserves held by bitcoin miners catalyzed the recent market pullback.
CryptoQuant tracks bitcoin addresses that receive coinbase rewards from mining pools and analyzes if those addresses send further transactions to crypto exchanges to cash out.
But evidently, some public mining companies did the opposite in January. In fact, the total bitcoin reserves held by public mining companies finally got back to the 40,000 BTC level, according to data from TheMinerMag.
So far, 14 out of 17 public mining companies regularly tracked by TheMinerMag have released production updates for January. They sold 3,907 BTC, representing 68.68% of their total production—the lowest ratio since July.
Notably, about half of them, including Core Scientific and Iris Energy, have been consistently selling 100% of their monthly productions. Others adopt a hybrid treasury strategy where they sell a portion of their production depending on the market environment.
Even though bitcoin retreated from a local high of $49,000 after a dozen bitcoin spot ETFs began trading, it found support above $40,000 and some public mining companies reduced the amount of bitcoin they needed to sell to fund operating expenses.
Currently, eight public mining companies hold more than 100 BTC on their balance sheets: Bitfarms, Bit Digital, CleanSpark, DMG, HIVE, Hut 8, Marathon, and Riot.
The eight companies sold 3,210 BTC last month, representing 54.2% of their combined production of 5,923 BTC. As of Jan. 31, these companies were holding 41,878 BTC, which is the highest level since the market sell-off began in May 2022.
Also interesting is the sharp contrast of the bitcoin liquidation ratio within the mining holder group as shown in the chart below. Cipher and CleanSpark sold less than 10% of their productions while Hut 8 sold 125% of what it mined, meaning it sold some of its bitcoin reserves on top of the amount they mined that month.
Riot, on the other hand, hinted that it would further reduce the liquidation. The company said in its January production update that it intends to “retain a greater proportion of its monthly bitcoin production in the near term.”
Regulation News
British Columbia Court Backs Ban on Crypto Mining in Canadian Province - CoinDesk
Green Block Mining Must Pay C$400K Fine, Cease Operations in Alberta - CBC.ca
What the US Wants to Know Exactly in the Bitcoin Mining Survey - TheMinerMag
US Abused Power in Bid to Get Crypto Energy Data, Groups Say - Bloomberg
Rise of crypto mines in region raises concerns; TVA stops giving grants to crypto, meets with miners - WUOT
Hardware and Infrastructure News
GRIID Expands Bitcoin Mining in Tennessee Amid Financial Concerns - BNN Breaking
CleanSpark Expands Bitcoin Mining to Mississippi with $20 Million Acquisition - TheMinerMag
Electricity Costs Shot Up for Bitcoin Miners in January - TheMinerMag
Chinese Bitcoin Miners Find a New Crypto Haven in Ethiopia - Bloomberg
Corporate News
EPA Settles with Greenidge Generation on Actions to Address Compliance with Coal Ash Regulations - Link
Bitmain’s S19XP Sales Transform into 5.5% Stake in Core Scientific - TheMinerMag
Marathon Pays Hut8 $13.5M to Accelerate Control of 390MW Sites - TheMinerMag
Hut 8 Shares Slide as CEO Departs Weeks After Short-Seller Report - CoinDesk
Financial News
Applied Digital Secures $20M Loan with 25% Annualized Cost - TheMinerMag
This PE Firm Owns 6% of Core Scientific After Chapter 11 - TheMinerMag
BitFuFu Inches Closer to Public Debut with F-4 Effectiveness - TheMinerMag
Feature
The Celsius Mining Scoop With ChazzonKe - The Mining Pod
Enter Swan Mining With Rapha Zagury - The Mining Pod
Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine - NYT