According to a Hash Rate Index report, Bitcoin miners continued to sell their supplies in July. These entities have been negatively impacted by falling BTC price and rising operating costs, which has resulted in financial stress for their operations.
So far, the report claims that Bitcoin miners have produced 3.470 BTC compared with 5.767 BTC sold. This behavior contributed to the decline of the quotation of BTC in 2022 and will continue to put pressure on the cryptocurrency market.
As seen below, major public Bitcoin miners have been selling their BTCs while production is lagging behind. Very few miners have managed to sell what they produce or not sell at all.
The report states that Core Scientific was the largest seller with 1.970 BTC downloaded on the market compared to 1.200 BTC produced. BitFarms and Argo follow with 1.600 BTC and around 900 BTC sold, respectively.
The report claims that US-based Bitcoin miners have been particularly hard hit. Operations in this country have been hit by a "series of heat waves" that have forced them to cut or shut down operations due to reduced electricity, the deliberate reduction in energy production to mitigate stress on the grid. The report states that:
As the heat increased in July, grids came under stress due to underproduction of energy goods (such as wind power in Texas) and excessive demand due to the use of alternating current and other stressors of the net; many industrial-scale miners stopped working during these times to stabilize the grid and return electricity to energy suppliers.
Because some Bitcoin miners have earned more from energy credits than from BTC mining
A deeper look at the current state of the BTC mining industry reveals that trades may have been affected by other factors. In addition to the heat waves, the report claims that miners may be swapping old equipment for newer S19 XPs and newer mining hardware.
As a result, old hardware is decommissioned, while new hardware is installed or moved to "new facilities or outfitted with new racks or configurations (such as immersion cooling)".
As seen below, Riot has recorded a total of $ 9,5 million in energy credits as a result of its energy reduction activities. According to the report, this is the equivalent of 439 BTC if the price of Bitcoin is around $ 21.600.
By contrast, the company produced 318 BTC worth $ 6,9 million. In total, Riot earned over $ 16 million from the combination of both deals. The curtailment became a necessity for BTC miners in the United States during the month of July. The report states that:
Other Bitcoin miners in Texas, such as Argo and Core Scientific, also experienced sharp reductions during the month of July, but it is unclear whether or not their electricity purchase agreement with ERCOT includes the same energy credit guarantees.
