BTC

Bitcoin hodling activity resembles previous market bottoms: Glassnode

Bitcoin’s price had just topped $21,000 at the time of writing — meaning around 45% of BTC holders have an “on-paper loss,” according to Glassnode.

The majority of Bitcoin (BTC) has been hodled for at least three months in behavior bearing a striking resemblance to previous Bitcoin market bottoms, says blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.

In a Saturday tweet, Glassnode noted that more than 80% of the total U.S. dollar-denominated wealth invested in Bitcoin has not been touched for at least three months.

This signifies that the “majority of BTC coin supply is dormant” and that hodlers are “increasingly unwilling to spend at lower prices,” said the firm.

Bitcoin’s price is $21,013 at the time of writing, down almost 70% from its all-time high of $69,044 in November 2021. The current price puts around 45% of Bitcoin holders with an on-paper loss, according to crypto intelligence firm IntoTheBlock.

According to the Glassnode chart, other times that saw similar levels of Bitcoin hodling were during the end of the bear markets of 2012, 2015 and 2018.

Last week, Coinbase’s head of institutional research, David Duong, wrote in a July 12 report titled “The Elusive Bottom” that on-chain data suggests that recent BTC selling has been carried out “almost exclusively” by short-term speculators. Long-term BTC holders “have not been selling into the market weakness,” he added.

“These holders own a highly concentrated ~77% of the total supply, which is down slightly from 80% to start the year but still quite high,” he explained before adding:

“We see this is a positive sentiment indicator as we believe these holders are less likely to sell BTC during turbulent periods.”

Earlier this month, Glassnode analysts noted that the Bitcoin market had seen an almost complete purge of “tourists,” noting that activity on the network is at levels concurrent with the deepest part of the bear market in 2018 and 2019.

Related: Bitcoin ready to attack key trendline, says data as BTC price holds $20K

Glassnode revealed that the number of active addresses and entities had seen a downtrend since November 2021, implying new and existing investors alike are not interacting with the network.

Additionally, the number of non-zero BTC addresses has reached an all-time high of 42,530,652, according to the firm.

BTC mining costs reach 10-month lows as miners use more efficient rigs

It now costs less to mine a single Bitcoin which could help to reverse the falling profitability trend while lowering power demands on the network.

The cost of mining one Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen to ten-month lows as mining hardware becomes more efficient, and difficulty has dropped 6.7% since its May peak.

On Wednesday, strategists from JPMorgan led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou told investors that Bitcoin production costs have fallen to around $13,000 from $24,000 at the beginning of June.

This is the lowest it has been since September 2021, according to the analysts citing a chart from Bitinfocharts, and comes as mining difficulty has fallen from its May highs of 31.25T to 29.15T.

Lower Bitcoin production costs can potentially ease miner selling pressure and improve profitability. However, the strategists were still bearish, stating “the decline in the production cost might be perceived as negative for the Bitcoin price outlook going forward,” according to Bloomberg.

They added that the production cost is perceived by some analysts as the lower bound for the BTC price range in a bear market. Several analysts have predicted BTC prices to fall to around $13,000, which would align with the 80%+ drawdowns in the previous two bear markets. Bitcoin is currently trading down 70% from its November all-time high.

Bitcoin production cost peaked just after the price peaks in April and November 2021 and has fallen back as markets did, so it is correlated but lags price movements.

The drop in production cost has been linked to a decline in electricity consumption.

Cambridge University’s Bitcoin energy consumption index currently reports that the network’s estimated daily power demand is 9.59 Gigawatts. This is a decline of 33% over the past month and is down 40% from the 2022 peak demand of almost 16 GW in February.

Source: Cambridge University

Additionally, a significant number of miners have powered down older and more inefficient mining rigs as they have become unprofitable to operate due to surging energy prices and a collapse in BTC prices.

According to Asicminervalue, the Bitmain Antminer E9, just released this month, is one of the most efficient units on the market, with a maximum hash rate of 2.4Gh/s for a power consumption of 1,920 watts.

Related: Bitcoin miners sell their hodlings, and ASIC prices keep dropping — What’s next for the industry?

On the flip side, miners have been hit with the double whammy of increasing global energy prices and tanking BTC prices. This has caused mining profitability to slump by 63% since the beginning of the year. Bitinfocharts reports that mining profitability is currently at its lowest levels since October 2020 at $0.095 per day per terahashes per second.

However, the fall in production cost may prevent a further fall in profitability and could even reverse that trend in the coming months.

Bitcoin faces Mt. Gox ‘black swan’ as trustee prepares to unlock 150K BTC

The prospect of a rumored 150,000 BTC flooding the market gets real as Mt. Gox creditors choose how much money to receive in cash, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin (BTC) faces a new selling threat in the near future as users of defunct exchange Mt. Gox prepare to get their BTC back.

In fresh correspondence dated July 6, attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, appointed trustee in the Mt. Gox rehabilitation process, confirmed that he was “preparing to make repayments” to account holders.

Cash, Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash?

Over eight years after Mt. Gox imploded, it appears that those who lost money are about to receive BTC.

The event has been long coming, as have concerns over its impact on the market. The price of Bitcoin at the time was a fraction of the current $20,900, commentators have noted, leading to suspicions that recipients could instantly sell large amounts of BTC on the market, pressuring prices.

In the official correspondence, Kobayashi did not give an exact date for the repayments to begin.

“The Rehabilitation Trustee is currently preparing to make repayments (‘Repayments’) in accordance with the approved rehabilitation plan of which confirmation order of the Tokyo District Court (the “Court”) was made final and binding on November 16, 2021 (the “Rehabilitation Plan”),” it reads.

Those owed now have the choice of receiving outstanding funds as an “Early Lump-Sum Repayment or not,” it continues, as well as receiving all or part of them in BTC or embattled altcoin Bitcoin Cash (BCH). 

“The deadline for the Choice and Registration will be set by the Rehabilitation Trustee with the permission of the Court,” the correspondence adds.

Mt. Gox trustee balance chart. Source: Glassnode

The rehabilitation plan was originally approved in 2018 and confirmed in October 2021. Out of the initial 850,000 BTC lost by Mt. Gox’s decline, only a reported 150,000 BTC has been recovered.

Reacting, Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, advised traders to set price alarms for when the payouts began. 

“It’s still quiet for now,” he tweeted, while another Twitter user included Mt. Gox as top of the list of “black swan” events which could impact BTC.

Celsius loan repayment boosts BTC

BTC/USD was unfazed by the prospect of the payouts on the day.

Related: Celsius pays down 143M in DAI loans since July 1

Instead, news that crypto lending platform Celsius had completed repayments of its own in the form of a $44 million loan to MakerDAO sent the market to nine-day highs of near $21,000.

As Cointelegraph reported, volatility was already expected to hit Bitcoin, which had been consolidating in an increasingly narrow range for several days, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

World’s first short Bitcoin ETF sees exposure explode 300% in days

Since launching last month, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI) has eclipsed others in inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) remains a popular institutional investment target in July, but the money is not betting on a bright future.

According to data from research firm Arcane Research published July 6, institutional flows focused on products offering exposure to shorting BTC in the first week of the month.

Shorting Bitcoin is the name of the game

Since launching in the United States in late June, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI), the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be “short” BTC, has proved a hit.

That trend has only accelerated in July, with short exposure jumping over 300% in days, data confirms.

“BITI, the first inverse BTC ETF, grew further last week,” Arcane summarized in Twitter comments.

“After becoming the second-largest bitcoin-related BTC ETF in the U.S. after only four days of trading, the net short exposure has grown further and increased by more than 300% last week.”

ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI) exposure chart. Source: Arcane Research/ Twitter

The timing for BITI in the U.S. is conspicuous in itself, coming as BTC/USD plumbed multi-year lows of $17,600.

As Cointelegraph reported, expectations among analysts remain skewed to the downside, and the BITI inflows appear to confirm that institutional sentiment is likewise.

Separate data published by digital asset investment firm CoinShares on July 4, meanwhile, put weekly inflows into Short BTC products at $51 million — easily the majority of the week’s total of $64 million.

While long BTC investments were just $20 million, CoinShares nonetheless highlighted persisting demand for such products despite shorts stealing the limelight.

“This highlights investors are adding to long positions at current prices, with the inflows into short-Bitcoin possibly due to first-time accessibility in the US rather than renewed negative sentiment,” it wrote.

Business (or lack of) as usual for GBTC

Testing times, meanwhile, remain for the stalwart institutional Bitcoin investment vehicle, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Related: Bitcoin price approaches potential springboard to $23K as DXY cools surge

After U.S. regulators rejected Grayscale’s application to convert the Trust to a Bitcoin spot ETF, the firm began legal action, a sign of the frustration facing an industry dealing with both regulatory scrutiny and declining asset prices.

The so-called GBTC premium, the difference between Bitcoin spot price and shares of GBTC, has been negative for over a year, at several points becoming a more than 30% discount.

GBTC premium vs. asset holdings vs. BTC/USD chart. Source: Coinglass

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin ‘tourists’ have been purged, only hodlers remain: Glassnode

Active addresses, entities and transactions on the Bitcoin network are all moving sideways while the number of wallets holding at least some of the assets continues to reach new highs.

So-called “market tourists” are fleeing from Bitcoin (BTC), leaving only long-term investors holding and transacting in the top cryptocurrency, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.

In its July 4 Week Onchain report, Glassnode analysts said June saw Bitcoin have one of its worst-performing months in 11 years, with a loss of 37.9%. It added activity on the Bitcoin network is at levels concurrent with the deepest part of the bear market in 2018 and 2019, writing:

“The Bitcoin network is approaching a state where almost all speculative entities, and market tourists have been completely purged from the asset.”

However, despite the almost complete purge of “tourists,” Glassnode noted significant accumulation levels, stating that the balances of shrimps — those holding less than 1 BTC, and whales — those with 1,000 to 5,000 BTC, were “increasing meaningfully.”

Shrimps, in particular, see the current Bitcoin prices as attractive and are accumulating it at a rate of almost 60,500 BTC per month, which Glassnode says is “the most aggressive rate in history,” equivalent to 0.32% of the BTC supply per month.

Explaining the purge of these tourist-type investors, Glassnode revealed that both the number of active addresses and entities have seen a downtrend since November 2021, implying new and existing investors alike are not interacting with the network.

Address activity has fallen from over 1 million daily active addresses in November 2021 to around 870,000 per day over the past week. Similarly, active entities, a collation of multiple addresses owned by the same person or institution, are now approximately 244,000 per day, which Glassnode says is around the “lower end of the “Low Activity” channel typical of bear markets.”

“A retention of HODLers is more evident in this metric, as Active Entities is generally trending sideways, indicative of a stable base-load of users,” the analysts added.

Source: Glassnode

The growth of new entities has also dived to lows from the 2018 to 2019 bear market, with the user-base of Bitcoin hitting 7,000 daily net new entities.

The transaction count remains “stagnant and sideways,” which indicates a lack of new demand but also means that holders are being retained through the market conditions.

“Transactional demand can be seen to move sideways throughout the main body of the bear,” – Glassnode

Related: Institutional investors shorting Bitcoin made up 80% of weekly inflows

Driving home its point, Glassnode concluded that the number of addresses with a non-zero balance, those that hold at least some Bitcoin, continues to hit all-time-highs and is currently sitting at over 42.3 million addresses.

Past bear markets saw a purge of wallets when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. Still, with this metric indicating otherwise, Glassnode says it shows an “increasing level of resolve amongst the average Bitcoin participant.”

Bitcoin price spikes to $20K as whale bought BTC confirms support

Bitcoin bounces to five-day highs while Ethereum rises above the $1,100 mark.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to clip $20,000 for the first time in five days on July 4 as the Independence Day holiday brought some unexpected gains.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart. Source: Tradingview.com

$20,000 briefly reappears

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking to $20,085 on the day, its best performance since June 30.

The pair had spent most of the holiday weekend at around $19,000, but the absence of Wall Street trading ultimately proved no obstacle for bulls. 

Thinner weekend order books likely exacerbated volatility compared to underlying volumes, but nonetheless, Bitcoin was up 3% on the day at the time of writing.

“Bitcoin has successfully created Bullish Divergence on the Daily Time Frame for the first time since breaking below $20,000,” popular analyst Matthew Hyland noted.

On-chain analytics resource Whalemap meanwhile confirmed that whales buying coins at $19,200 had once again provided support for the market.

As Cointelegraph reported, whales had expressed a keen interest in levels immediately below $20,000, conspicuously not choosing to wait until much-vaunted levels at $16,000 and below appeared.

“Flipping $19.5K is a trigger for Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph contributor Michael van de Poppe added.

Altcoins meanwhile made the most of Bitcoin’s spike, with Ether (ETH) rising almost 6% to pass $1,100.

ETH/USD 1-hour candle chart. Source: Tradingview.com

Others in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap broadly saw daily gains of around 5%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Worst quarter in 11 years as Bitcoin price and activity plunge

Quarterly returns on Bitcoin haven’t been this bad since it was trading under $20 in the early days of Mt. Gox, but the stock market isn’t faring so hot either.

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen its worst quarterly loss in 11 years with price and activity on the blockchain both plunging over the last three months.

The second quarter ending Thursday saw Bitcoin’s price fall from around $45,000 at the start of the quarter to trade at $19,884 before midnight EST on Thursday, according to CoinGecko. This represents a 56.2% loss, according to crypto analytics platform Coinglass.

It’s the steepest price fall since the third quarter of 2011 when BTC fell from $15.40 to $5.03, a loss of over 67% and worse than the bear markets of 2014 and 2018 when Bitcoin’s price slumped 39.7% and 49.7% in their worst quarters respectively.

The past quarter saw eight weekly red candles in a row for Bitcoin and the month of June saw a drawdown of over 37%. This was the heaviest monthly losses since September 2011, which saw the price fall more than 38.5% in the month.

There are also signs that investors are keeping their powder dry — or they’ve run out of funds — during the bear market. Activity on the blockchain is taking a dive with Bitcoin’s spot volume — the total amount of coins transacting on the blockchain — dropped over 58.5% in just nine days, according to a Wednesda analysis from Arcane Research.

But, it’s not just crypto markets in turmoil. Thanks to sky-high inflation and rising interest rates, the traditional stock market has also taken a pounding, with some calling it the “worst quarter ever” for stocks.

Charlie Bilello, CEO of financial advisory firm Compound Capital Advisors, shared a chart on Twitter showing the S&P 500 index was down 20.6% in the first half of 2022, the worst start to the year for the index since 1962 when price return was -26.5%.

The difficult economic conditions have seen a swath of staff layoffs from crypto companies including Gemini, Crypto.com and BlockFi. Most recently, the crypto and stock trading platform Bitpanda cut its employee count by approximately 277 full-time and part-time employees.

Related: 80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in the great crypto crash of 2022

Crypto is closely tied to the wider tech sector, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index has fallen by almost 22.5% over the second quarter.

A “Tech Layoff Tracker” from technology jobs board TrueUp reveals that over 26,000 tech employees across 200 company-wide cutbacks just in June alone.

Tech Layoff Tracker. Source: TrueUp

Over the quarter, 307 layoffs impacted over 52,000 staff, with one of the largest coming from Elon Musk’s Tesla, with 3,500 impacted. Crypto exchange Coinbase is featured twice, first for its June 2 hiring freeze and job offer rescission of nearly 350 people and second for its June 14 staff layoff, affecting 1,100 individuals.

‘Can’t stop, won’t stop’ — Bitcoin hodlers buy the dip at $20K BTC

The idea that panic selling is driving BTC price losses appears less watertight on the back of the latest data.

Everyone expects another Bitcoin (BTC) capitulation event, but data suggests that mass buying has already started.

In a Twitter thread on June 29, Checkmate, lead on-chain analyst at data firm Glassnode, drew attention to who in Bitcoin is really stacking sats.

Shrimp or whale, Bitcoin hodlers are stacking sats

Bitcoin selling has made the headlines for weeks and has even begun to include long-term holders (LTHs) — those who have been guarding their coins for 155 days or more.

Speculators are not taking the blame for the current BTC price weakness, but contrary to popular opinion, many market participants are, in fact, adding to their BTC allocations.

Dissecting Glassnode data, Checkmate revealed that the smallest and largest players are both in buy-mode at around $20,000.

Splitting the hodler base into four sections: “shrimps,” “crabs (otherwise known as classic hodlers),” “sharks” and whales, the figures make for surprising reading.

Both shrimps and crabs, the smallest retail investors with 10 BTC or less in their wallets, are not only stacking, but doing so more intensely than at any time since the first time that BTC/USD hit $20,000 in 2017.

“Can’t stop and won’t stop,” Checkmate wrote describing the accumulation action.

“Shrimp are adding to the $BTC balance at the greatest rate since the 2017 ATH. Same price, different trend direction. I do not underestimate the smarts not conviction of the little guy in Bitcoin.”

At the other end of the spectrum, whales are similarly removing coins from exchanges to private wallets at a pace Checkmate calls “full HAM.”

The main exception lies in the middle: the sharks or institutional, high net worth entities with between 10 and 1,000 BTC to their name.

While this makes up a large swathe of the network, hodlers have borne the brunt of macro changes, Checkmate claims, either getting liquidated on positions or seeing their wealth erased in DeFi bets.

Even here, however, the overall trend is up.

“Balances are increasing, but nothing special. Given the TradFi and crypto shitshow –> I suspect these guys are heavily affected by deleveraging, and margin calls,” he wrote.

Analyst $25 billion exchange stablecoin reserves

Earlier this week, Glassnode likewise showed that 30-day cumulative BTC outflows from exchanges had reached a new peak.

Related: 80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in the great crypto crash of 2022

For Ki Young Ju, CEO of fellow analytics firm CryptoQuant, signs that capital is waiting on the sidelines to deploy back into crypto are also clear.

Ki eyed the mere 11% reduction in the combined stablecoin market cap compared to Bitcoin’s 70% from all-time highs.

“Stablecoins sitting in exchanges are now worth half of Bitcoin reserve,” he added on June 30.

“We have $25B loaded bullets, which can make crypto asset prices go up. The question is when, not how.”

The situation is complicated by the fact that the stablecoin market cap ratio on exchanges has stayed practically constant for two years, while the market cap itself has ballooned in that period.

The Bitcoin exchange supply ratio, meanwhile, has been much more volatile.

Bitcoin exchange supply ratio v.s BTC/USD chart. Source: CryptoQuant

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

No flexing for Bitcoin Cash users as BCH loses 98% against Bitcoin

Amid controversy surrounding major supporter Roger Ver, the Bitcoin hard fork plumbs new depths in BTC terms.

Bitcoin (BTC) has hit new record highs this week — not in U.S. dollar terms, but against its longtime competitor, Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirms that on June 29, BCH/BTC officially set its lowest ever price.

CoinFLEX debacle ensnares BCH supporter Ver

Bitcoin Cash, also known as “Bcash” by those critical of the coin’s ethos and future, gained notoriety in 2017 when it became the first major hard fork of the Bitcoin network to take on BTC itself.

Months after launching, the altcoin hit highs of around 0.43 BTC per token, this proving something of a fakeout for investors who have spent the intervening period watching its value steadily decline.

Arguably the most vocal BCH supporter, entrepreneur Roger Ver, has nonetheless continued to tout its supremacy over Bitcoin, with price woes having little impact on his rhetoric.

This month, however, Ver courted controversy when reports emerged that he owed $47 million in stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) to crypto investment platform CoinFLEX.

Ver denies the claims, with a social media storm ensuing which is ongoing this week. Regardless of the outcome, its impact on BCH has been palpable. On June 29, BCH/BTC fell to new all-time lows of just 0.005 — 98.83% below its 2017 peak.

BCH/BTC 1-month candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

The event was not lost on commentators, many of whom remembered Ver’s insistence that BCH would rise to replace BTC altogether.

Even Bitcoin SV outperforms BCH

For another vehement anti-Bitcoin spin-off, the situation is barely any better.

Related: Bitcoin’s bottom might not be in, but miners say it ‘has always made gains over any 4-year period’

Bitcoin SV (BSV), the offspring of BCH which emerged during community infighting, hit all-time lows of its own against BTC in May.

Since then, a modest rebound has occurred, taking BSV/BTC to 0.0016 BTC — a mere 94.48% below its all-time high of 0.029 BTC seen at the start of 2020.

BSV/BTC 1-month candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

On the plus side, BSV now buys more BCH than at any time since December of that year.

BSV/BCH 1-week candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

$30K BTC price has ‘severe impact’ on Bitcoin miner profits — analysis

Miners are facing an increasingly problematic climate for participating in the Bitcoin blockchain, and only higher BTC prices can help.

Bitcoin (BTC) is squeezing its miners this month as suppressed prices threaten to impact profitability.

The latest data shows both narrowing profit margins and miners waiting longer to recoup their initial investment.

Miner production cost faces off with BTC price

While Bitcoin miners have largely held off on major distribution as BTC/USD descends from all-time highs, the picture now appears precarious.

Calculations from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveal that miners’ production price — how much it costs to mine a single Bitcoin — could be right where the current spot price resides.

While “raw” costs may be around $22,000 per BTC for miners in North America, which is home to the lion’s share of hashing power, additional costs could put the total at more like $30,000.

“We estimate cost basis for bitcoin miners in North America around $22K per bitcoin mined. This estimate includes the direct cost of mining and S&A expenses. It does not include depreciation and amortization charges,” CryptoQuant senior analyst Julio Moreno confirmed to Cointelegraph in private comments:

“If depreciation and amortization charges are included then the cost basis for mining Bitcoin is at around $30K, basically at the same level as current bitcoin price.”

Bitcoin miner exchange flows vs. BTC/USD chart. Source: CryptoQuant

Fears of a “capitulation” event among miners should spot price deteriorate remain a talking point. So far, however, only the May dip below $24,000 saw a noticeable reaction from the mining community.

“Our data shows increasing Bitcoin flows from miners to exchanges during March 2022 and then a sharp spike in flows during the first week of May. This is in line with Bitcoin selling reported by some mining companies in Q1 2022,” Moreno added.

In January, miners’ production cost appeared to be at around $34,000, separate data showed.

Bitcoin miner ROI expands in May 

Continuing, mining firm Luxor’s Hashrate Index metric produced more interesting insights.

Related: Bitcoin miners say NY ban will be ineffective and ‘isolate’ the state

The Index, which shows the current price in United States dollar per terahashes, according to ASIC miner efficiency, confirms that that cost area has been decreasing incrementally since December 2021.

At the same time, findings by Twitter user XBTJames show the time taken for the average participant to enter profit by seeing return on investment (ROI) is expanding.

“Time to ROI has been increasing steadily since the ‘China Ban’ ASIC firesale last year. While USD pricing on ASICs has come down, the selloff in BTC and the increase in difficulty have combined to severely impact mining profitability,” the account explained in a series of tweets.

XBTJames added that higher BTC prices would be needed to reduce the pain for miners, including new market players and those looking to expand their hashing capabilities.

Bitcoin ASIC Price Index vs. BTC/USD chart (screenshot). Source: Hashrateindex.com

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.