Key Points
- Bitcoin miners have sold over $13B worth of BTC in December, reducing the miner balance to 1.95M coins.
- Despite the sell-off, the Puell Multiple suggests that Bitcoin is not overvalued yet.
Bitcoin [BTC] miners have been actively selling their holdings since the cryptocurrency crossed the $100K mark. In the first half of December, miners sold 140K BTC, equivalent to $13.72B.
According to data from Santiment, this sell-off has resulted in a decrease in the miner balance from over 2M to 1.95M coins.
Bitcoin Maintains Stability Above $100K
Despite the significant sell-off, Bitcoin has managed to stay stable above the $100K mark. The intensity of the miner sell-off is less severe when assessed through the miner outflow metric, which monitors all miner wallets and their transfers to exchanges.
On November 12th, Bitcoin experienced the highest daily miner sell-off of 25K BTC. However, this pressure has been decreasing, as indicated by the decreasing miner outflows. It’s possible that the majority of the sell-off took place over the OTC (Over The Counter) markets.
Impact of Miner Selling on Bitcoin Value
The overall December sell-off slightly outweighed the demand from ETFs. In the past two weeks, BTC ETFs logged $4.9B inflows. During the same period, MicroStrategy purchased $3.6 billion worth of BTC.
When excluding Mara Digital and other firms with BTC corporate treasuries, ETFs and MicroStrategy’s BTC demand amounted to $8.3B in the past two weeks. This was slightly less than the $13.72B supply from miners.
So, how does this intense miner selling impact Bitcoin’s value? The Puell Multiple, which allows users to gauge BTC valuation and cycles from the perspective of miners, provides some insights.
A high Puell Multiple reading suggests that BTC’s value is unsustainably high, while a low reading indicates a relatively undervalued BTC.
In early 2024, the metric hit 2.4 and marked a local BTC top at $73.7K. Currently, the metric reading is 1.3 and is not far from crossing 2 or the upper band.
Therefore, according to the Puell Multiple and miners’ perspective, BTC is not overvalued or in a red zone yet. However, this could change if the metric rises above 2.
Currently, BTC is consolidating below $102K in anticipation of the Fed rate decision on the 18th of December.