Can Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows Sustain BTC Prices Amid Rising Miner Pressure?

Bitcoin's miner sell-off amid rising block size and difficulty, coupled with ETF influx, spurs correction fears amid "Extreme Greed".
By Varinder Singh
Bitcoin Miners Under Pressure To Sell, Is BTC Price Retracement Below $50K Imminent?

Highlights

  • Bitcoin block size has increased by about 40-50%
  • Bitcoin mining difficulty hits 81.73T, with network hashrate nearly doubled in the last 12 months
  • Bitcoin Miners' Position Index (MPI) is also indicating elevated selling pressure from miners
  • BTC price under selling pressure

Bitcoin price has surged 25% since the spot Bitcoin ETF launch in the United States and significant Bitcoin accumulation by large whales in 2024. Given the low BTC supply coupled with rising mining difficulty situation, an increase in block size could potentially add pressure on miners to sell their holdings.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index hits “Extreme Greed” with a value of 76, indicating a potential crypto market selloff in the next few days.

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Bitcoin Miners Under Selloff Pressure

Bitcoin block size has increased by about 40-50% amid a rise in Bitcoin network activity due to BTC’s recent rally, as per a CryptoQuant-verified analyst. Typically, Ordinals increase block size that often leads to an increase in fees. However, there is no significant increase in fees, which means the increase in block size is due to high volume of BTC buying or selling.

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While mining difficulty and block size are different concepts, an increase in block size indirectly affects mining competition as miners spend more time transmitting over the network. Bitcoin mining difficulty hits 81.73T, with network hashrate nearly doubled in the last 12 months going from 303 EH/s to an average of 577 EH/s, as per BTC.com data.

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The increase in block size amid rising mining difficulty and BTC price can add pressure on miners to sell their BTC holdings. Notably, the Bitcoin Miners’ Position Index (MPI) is also indicating elevated selling pressure from miners, raising concerns among analysts and investors. Historically, BTC price witnessed correction when MPI was high and miners reserve also fell.

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Currently, the miner reserve has declined to 3-year low amid massive demand from spot Bitcoin ETFs and the market. The exchange reserves are also on the brink of dropping below 2 million BTC, a key level maintained until November-end.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded a net inflow of $323.90 million on Friday, with inflow since launch reaching almost $5 billion.

BTC price fell slightly in the last 24 hours, with the price currently trading at $50,950, a 2.13% drop from the intra-day high. The 24-hour low and high are $51,641 and $52,537, respectively. Furthermore, the trading volume has decreased further by over 40% in the last 24 hours settling at $19.89B, indicating a decline in interest among traders.  Moreover, analysts such as Ali Martinez have predicted a downslide in the next few days if bearish pressure increases and support fails to hold.

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Varinder Singh
Varinder has over 10 years of experience and is known as a seasoned leader for his involvement in the fintech sector. With over 5 years dedicated to blockchain, crypto, and Web3 developments, he has experienced two Bitcoin halving events making him key opinion leader in the space. At CoinGape Media, Varinder leads the editorial decisions, spearheading the news team to cover latest updates, markets trends and developments within the crypto industry. The company was recognized as Best Crypto Media Company 2024 for high impact and quality reporting. Being a Master of Technology degree holder, analytics thinker, technology enthusiast, Varinder has shared his knowledge of disruptive technologies in over 5000+ news, articles, and papers.
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