14,000 BTC Transferred as Record High since 2021 due to 'Miner Capitulation'

According to data from blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, bitcoin miners have transferred 14,000 bitcoins over the past few weeks.

Bitcoin was trading around $23,448.55, up about 7.5% over the past 24 hours as for time writing.

At the current price, a total of $328,839,700 has been transferred from the miners' wallets. This was the highest number of bitcoins sold since January 2021.

This phenomenon is known as “miner capitulation,” which, through the sale of Bitcoin, is primarily used to pay for ASIC servers, capital investments to increase data centre capacity, and to repay the debt on schedule.

The cost of producing Bitcoin has gone negative as it dropped from about $24,000 at the start of June to around $13,000 now, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Cryptocurrencies have fallen over 60% so far as risk assets struggle with Fed hikes to fight inflation and high-profile collapses in the crypto industry like Terra/Luna and Three Arrows Capital

Citi analyst Joseph Ayoub wrote in a note:

“Given rising electricity costs and bitcoin’s steep price decline, the cost of mining a bitcoin may be higher than its price for some miners,”

Argo also disclosed that it sold 637 BTC at an average price of $24,500 in June in order to pay for operating expenses and a BTC-backed loan from Galaxy Digital.

American Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency mining firm Core Scientific has shared its operational update by selling over 7200 Bitcoins in June.

it sold as much as 7,202 Bitcoin units worth approximately $167 million at an average price of $23,000 during the month.