Bitcoin miners stay resilient despite traders’ waning risk appetite — Glassnode

Bitcoin (BTC) miners are demonstrating unwavering commitment as the network’s hash rate approaches an all-time high, according to a recent Glassnode report.

The report noted that the 14-day moving average hash rate has climbed to 666.4 exahashes per second (EH/s), just 1% shy of the record. This indicates that miners continue to install new mining hardware regardless of unfavorable market conditions.

The report added that the increase in hash rate is met with a corresponding rise in mining difficulty, with the current average required hashes to mine a block at 338,000 exahash, the second-highest in Bitcoin’s history.

Building war chests

Meanwhile, miners’ revenue has seen a significant decline since Bitcoin’s price peaked in March. This decrease is largely attributed to falling fee pressure, driven by reduced demand for monetary transfers and fewer fees from Runes and Inscription-related transactions.

Bitcoin miners’ block subsidy revenue currently stands at $824 million on the 30-day moving average, while transaction fee revenue amounts to $20 million for the period.

A Dune Analytics dashboard by user CryptoKoryo revealed that, between Aug. 30 and Sept. 6, Runes and Inscription-related transactions failed to reach the 50,000 threshold on six out of eight days. Since the Runes protocol deployment on April 20, the 50,000-transaction threshold has rarely remained untouched.

The report also highlighted that miners have generally sold most of their mined BTC to cover mining costs, which is tied to the competitive and capital-intensive nature of the mining industry.

However, miners have transitioned from net distribution over the mined supply to now retaining a portion of the mined supply in their treasury reserves.

The report classified this as an “interesting development” since miners tend to be procyclical — selling during drawdowns and holding during uptrends. It added that the shift in behavior might be driven by the rising hash rate and difficulty, which reflect increasing production costs for BTC and could negatively impact miner profitability in the near future.

Traders lost their appetite

Meanwhile, the report noted that Bitcoin traders appear to be shifting to a “holding” stance despite miners showing resilience. On-chain settlement volume has dropped, with the network processing about $6.2 billion in daily transaction volume, a decline generally viewed as a negative indicator of network usage and throughput.

The report also noted a significant drop in monthly inflow volumes to centralized exchanges, falling below the yearly average. This suggests reduced investor demand and lower trading activity among speculators at current price levels.

Glassnode analysts highlighted a continued decay in spot trading volume momentum over the past 90 days, reinforcing the overall drop in trading activity during the last quarter. Despite this, the spot Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) metric revealed increased sell pressure on centralized exchanges during the same period. The CVD estimates the net balance of market buying and selling in centralized markets.

Glassnode analysts also examined Bitcoin’s price action in August, noting both positive and negative trends. However, given the negative outlook from other indicators, Bitcoin is currently in a low-risk zone. These zones are typically vulnerable to external factors, such as macroeconomic developments, which could drive a significant price move in either direction.

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