Ethereum Miners Sell

Ethereum miners are holding less eth than at any time since December 2018 according to data from Santiment, a blockchain analytics startup.

Some 100,000 eth has been sold since last month by miners, bringing their holdings to 1,037,990.

That’s less than at any time in two years, with miners accumulating since January 2018 when the price was falling until February 2019.

At that point, their holdings neither increase nor decrease, suggesting they were insta-selling their mining rewards.

This month however they have sold some of their holding too, potentially explaining at least partially eth’s lackluster performance against bitcoin.

Interestingly in 2017 they also insta-sold and sometime sold off holdings too, while in 2016 they accumulated.

Small and big miners seem to have acted similar until last year when presumably due to price pressures, small miners simply could no longer hold out.

Their daily rewards were not sufficient to cover costs, so they turn towards selling their holdings too, something they continued this year to the point they now effectively have no holdings.

Big miners also have seen a sharp drop recently as can be seen above, with it unclear whether they’ll do a 2017 selling or hold out.

In 2017, price rose and considerably even as miners were selling some of their holdings as can be seen above.

Therefore it’s not clear whether a turn towards miners selling some of their holdings would have a significant effect on price as it may be cancelled out by sums locked in defi or in staking.