- JP Morgan says rebound in Bitcoin price difficult due to sell-off by miners
- Bitcoin mining price has dropped significantly
The current Bitcoin (BTC) sell-off by miners could make it difficult for its price to rebound, especially if the trend continues, according to analysts by JP Morgan.
According to the analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, BTC sales in May and June have already been reported by publicly listed miners – accounting for 20% of the total sales – to increase liquidity, meet costs and possibly deleverage.
The analysts added that in order to meet ongoing costs, privately-held miners may have sold a larger share of their block rewards from mining activity.
JP MorganOffloading of Bitcoins by miners, in order to meet ongoing costs or to delever, could continue into Q3 if their profitability fails to improve. That offloading “has likely already weighed on prices in May and June, though there is a risk that this pressure could continue.
Compared to the beginning of the year, BTC prices have nearly halved in value. Even as the largest digital currency by market capitalization hovers around the $21,000 mark, it is down nearly 69% from its all-time high seen in November last year.
Factors including the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its native token LUNA, the near insolvency of major crypto firms like Celsius and 3AC, and the Federal Reserve’s hike in interest rates have led to the fall in the broader crypto markets.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan also noted that BTC’s mining costs have dropped from an average of $18,000-20,000 to $15,000 due to a drop in hash rate and mining difficulty over the last two weeks.