Bitcoin’s value against the U.S. dollar lost 7.3% during the last 24 hours after more than $600 million in value was removed from the $1.07 trillion crypto economy. Statistics show that a number of bitcoin miners capitulated over the last two weeks, selling 5,925 bitcoin worth millions, according to cryptoquant.com data.
After a brief miner capitulation pause, over 6,100 bitcoins have been sold since the first of the month
At 8:30 a.m. Friday (EST) the US dollar value of bitcoin fell from $23,593 per unit to $21,268 per coin. Over $600 million has been wiped out of the crypto economy during the last day as BTC is down 7.3% and ETH is down 7.4%. Several other coins lost value against the US Dollar as well as BNB during the past 24 hours, down 5%, XRP was down 9%, and ADA was down 10.3%.
According to data stemming from cryptoquant.com shared by Ali Martinez bitcoin miners capitulated during the last 14 days. “Bitcoin miners appear to have taken advantage of the recent upswing to book profits,” Martinez said. “Data shows that miners sold 5,925 BTC in the last two weeks, worth roughly $142 million.”
Following Martinez’s tweet, data from Cryptoquant.com shows that more than 6,100 BTC have been sold since August 1st. Web portal Miners Status Index Bitcoin miners are said to be doing a “minor sale” of bitcoin. Using today’s crypto market values, 6,100 BTC is equivalent to $130.80 million, which is much less than Martinez’s quote price.
Miners took a break from selling BTC after a flurry of mined bitcoin was sold during the two months prior to August 1, 2022. A Blockware Intelligence Newsletter published on July 29 explained that the end of miner capitulation was near. “According to the hash ribbon metric, Bitcoin is 52 days into a miner capitulation,” the Blockware newsletter said. Blockware’s report added:
The end of a miner’s capitulation historically marked the bottom of a bear market.
During the first two weeks of August, it seemed as though miner capitulation was over and BTC managed to tap $25,212 per unit on August 14. BTC has lost 14.58% since the August 14 high and it’s currently down 69% from the $69,044 per unit price recorded on November 10, 2021. This past week Bitcoin’s mining difficulty rose by 0.63% making it more difficult for miners to discover BTC blocks and with prices lower, mining bitcoin is less profitable today than it was five days ago.
Bitcoin hashrate up 46% during last 24 hours after recent difficulty increase
Despite increasing difficulty, after coasting below the 200 exhash per second (EH/s) zone at 182.40 EH/s a day earlier on August 18, 2022, BTC’s hash rate has risen to 267.40 EH/s. This is a 24-hour increase of about 46.60% compared to the 182 EH/sec recorded on Thursday afternoon (EST).
Using the current difficulty parameter, BTC’s current market value and a cost of around $0.12 per kilowatt hour (kWh), a Bitmain Antminer S19 XP with 140 terahash per second (TH/s) can get an estimated $4.85 per day in profit. The Microbt Whatsminer M50S launched in July with 126 TH/s can get an estimated $2.74 per day in profit, according to current market statistics.
