Cryptocurrency miners have already felt the "halving" pressure, the next step is to sell Bitcoin to relieve the pressure?

According to research firm Kaiko, as the income of Bitcoin miners holding a large amount of digital currency assets sharply declines, the cryptocurrency market may face greater selling pressure.

In late April, Bitcoin completed its fourth "halving" in history. The so-called "halving" refers to the halving of rewards miners receive through mining. Every time the Bitcoin blockchain generates 210,000 blocks, the Bitcoin block reward is halved. The result of the latest halving is that the number of Bitcoins produced daily by miners through verifying transactions has decreased from 900 to 450, and the reward miners receive has decreased from 6.25 Bitcoins to 3.125 Bitcoins.

The "halving" has impacted the income of Bitcoin miners. Bitcoin miners' income mainly comes from two sources: mining rewards and transaction fees. The "halving" directly affects miners' mining rewards, however, miners' operational costs such as electricity and equipment expenses do not decrease due to the halving. Therefore, if the Bitcoin price and transaction fees do not rise significantly to offset the impact of the reward "halving," it means that many miners may face profitability difficulties.

Bitcoin miners can mitigate losses by earning more transaction fees, which is another source of income besides mining subsidies. After the halving, the launch of some meme coins temporarily caused transaction fees to soar because users were eager to pay miners higher fees to prioritize their transactions. However, with the recent cooling of meme coins trend, related fees have plummeted.

For these reasons, since the beginning of this year, Bitcoin mining companies such as Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Cipher Mining, etc., have mostly experienced declines in stock prices, with some falling by double digits.

Therefore, Kaiko stated in a report on Monday: "If miners are forced to sell even a small portion of their assets next month, it will have a negative impact on the market. Trading activity usually slows down in the summer months, and liquidity may also be insufficient."

Although Bitcoin miners sold most of their reserves during the last cryptocurrency crash in 2022, with the significant rebound in the digital currency market, they have held more reserves over the past two years. According to Kaiko's data, the two largest publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies, Marathon and Riot, respectively hold 17,631 Bitcoins and 8,872 Bitcoins, valued at over $1.1 billion and over $500 million, respectively