Last month saw larger-than-normal outflows from miners to exchanges as bitcoin’s price set record highs for the first time since April 2021. October’s flow totaled $1.75 million. August and September flows were $931,000 and $609,000.

Even though aggregate miner balances have remained fairly steady through bitcoin’s price appreciation, some marginal selling activity seems to have occurred by miners during bitcoin’s latest jump to $69,000.

  • October has seen the highest flows from miners to exchanges over the past three months.
  • Zooming out, small increases in miner flows are normal when bitcoin’s price appreciates.

The chart below shows daily miner flows to exchanges over the past year.

Miners are holders, and any narratives around miners causing price crashes are false. But as bitcoin’s price rises, miners will occasionally sell into strength like any other market participant. These profits are used to cover operating costs or finance expansions. And instead of directly selling their coins on the open market, many miners work with over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks to minimize any potential impact from their selling.

Some miners prefer to sell nothing altogether, instead choosing to borrow fiat against their bitcoin holdings. Either way, selling into a healthy price rise is normal market behavior.

The amount of coins sent by miners to exchanges has been dropping for years. Despite some temporary spikes in flows, the overall trend is still intact. Denominated in dollars, some miner flows occasionally equal levels from the prior bull market in 2017. The chart below visualizes these trends and highlights temporary spikes in flows.

The trend of miners selling into rallies seems to be continuing, and it only makes sense to realize profits when the market is hot. It will be interesting to see how much more bitcoin miners are holding as the new trend of public mining companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet continues with many private miners doing the same over many prior market cycles. The more miners hold, the fewer coins there are to send to exchanges.