The five largest Bitcoin mining companies are not selling Bitcoin despite a 50% cut due to Bitcoin's impending halving.
According to an April 10 Bitwise report, Bitcoin sales by the five largest mining companies fell to their lowest level in two years in the first quarter of 2024, when the five largest miners sold a combined total of about 2,000 BTC.
The last time the five largest mining companies sold less than 2,000 BTC was in the first quarter of 2022. By comparison, the five largest mining companies sold more than 7,000 BTC in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The report comes just days before Bitcoin's halving in 2024, which is expected to reduce the rewards for issuing Bitcoin blocks from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block mined.
Combined with Bitcoin's ever-increasing hash rate, the profitability of mining companies could suffer after halving.
Despite the bleak outlook for some miners, Bitcoin miners' revenues saw a 30% quarter-on-quarter increase, tripling from recent lows in the fourth quarter of 2022. According to Bitwise, Bitcoin excavator revenues rose above $4.5 billion.
According to Laurent Benayoun, CEO of Acheron Trading, despite the upcoming halving of block rewards, Bitcoin mining revenues will not necessarily decline in US dollars:
"In dollar terms, it is not obvious that miners will be worse off after halving, on the contrary [...] The decrease in mining rewards will be offset by an increase in network fees."
However, Bitcoin miners' revenues have historically declined in the months following Bitcoin halving. Bitcoin mining revenues fell 40% in the month after halving Bitcoin in 2020, while monthly revenues fell more than 51% after halving Bitcoin in 2016.
