The amount of Bitcoin held by miners has dropped to its lowest total in more than 14 years, according to data from IntoTheBlock.
On June 19, miner reserves fell to 1.90 million Bitcoin (BTC) after starting the year with 1.95 million BTC.
According to Lucas Outumuro, head of research at IntoTheBlock, miners are expected to hold less Bitcoin over time as the halving pressures their margins, making them more likely to sell their reserves.
In Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism, miners are rewarded with new Bitcoin for validating transactions and securing the network. Miner reserves refer to the unsold Bitcoin held by miners.
Roughly every four years, the network’s mining subsidy is chopped in half.
The last quadrennial halving, which occurred on April 20, 2024, reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
“That being said, historically, this has been at a relatively slow rate, so it hasn’t been a major selling pressure,” Outumuro told Cointelegraph.
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Despite the pay cut, miner reserves measured in United States dollars have been hovering around their all-time high of about $135 billion. This means that although Bitcoin producers are holding fewer Bitcoin, the dollar value of the BTC is higher.
“It seems today’s miners have learned from past cycles,” said Sascha Grumbach, CEO of tokenized mining firm Green Mining DAO, in a written commentary shared with Cointelegraph.
“Gone are the days of overleveraging and holding onto too much Bitcoin, a strategy that backfired in the past.”
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An April report by CoinShares predicts Bitcoin’s hashrate will surge in 2025 after a post-halving dip.
Dropping Bitcoin rewards and competition causes the amount of Bitcoin produced per unit of hash power to decrease over time, which raises production costs.
“[Miners’] focus seems to be on short-term financial stability rather than long-term, large-scale accumulation of Bitcoin.”
“In other words, having less Bitcoin is normal in the market phase we are in,” Grumbach concluded.