The larger crypto-community rejoiced vocally when the Bitcoin halving took place on 11 May at around 4 pm EST. However, while this was a crucial milestone for the Bitcoin community and the network, the halving also meant that the block reward for miners would get slashed in half. As the much-anticipated event concluded, Bitcoin miners, who were receiving 12.5 BTC as revenue, were now recipients of only 6.25 BTC. And while transaction fees did shoot up post halving to make up for the miners’ cost, it could not sustain itself.
In order to cover the reduction in revenue from the block reward halving, Bitcoin miners have begun offloading their Bitcoin. According to the latest report by Arcane Research, miners are now moving more Bitcoins than they are mining.
Source: Arcane
The only possible way for miners to offload more Bitcoin than they are mining is if they are moving the inventory that had been built up previously. The metric, Miner’s Rolling Inventory [MRI], tracks the difference between what miners have generated and what they have moved. Essentially, it’s an indication of how much Bitcoin the miners are selling.
According to the attached chart, the MRI is now well above 100%, quite contrary to how it had started to decline from late-March to May. A value that is lower than 100% indicates that inventories are growing since miners are moving less than what they are mining. However, after halving, this MRI shot above 100%, meaning that they were moving not only the mined BTC, but also the inventory BTC.
Miners were already falling short in covering their costs before the halving, and now it would seem that the MRI clearly indicates a change in miners’ behavior, with them selling more inventories in order to cover for the slashed revenue. According to Blockchain.com, the miners’ revenue chart seems to be forming an upward sloping curve since the beginning of June. On 4 June, the revenue stood at $9.764 million.
With mining difficulty adjusting downwards for the second consecutive time post-halving, miners will now be able to earn rewards easily and efficient miners may be able to replace inefficient miners in the space, further helping with the revenue.
