Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Technologies to List on Nasdaq via SPAC Deal

April 13, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Crypto stocks surge: Coinbase up 69%, MicroStrategy up 74% since lows

January 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitfarms

Crypto-related stocks, ETFs and tokens have all surged in price so far in 2023 despite experts expecting the Federal Reserve to continue hiking interest rates.

The share price of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has surged by 69% since its all time lows and other crypto-related stocks including business intelligence firm MicroStrategy have recorded similar jumps with green candles all around since the start of 2023.

The share price of Coinbase fell as low as $31.95 on Jan. 6, before shooting up to $54.14 by the close of trading on Jan. 17.

*Coinbase’s share price for the last month. Source: Yahoo Finance*

The rising share price will likely be accompanied by a huge sigh of relief for Coinbase executives after a challenging 2022 saw it cut 20% of its workforce and decide to wind down its Japanese operations. Despite the surge, COIN remains more than 84% below its all time high.

Other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy and digital payments company Block Inc. have also posted strong gains in the new year.

MicroStrategy's share price has increased to nearly $236 from a low of just over $135 on Dec. 29 — representing an increase of over 74% — while Jack Dorsey’s Block has seen its share price increase by a muted but still respectable 27%, after rebounding from a low of under $59 on Dec. 28 to over $75.

The rebound has been even more dramatic for crypto mining stocks. Bitfarms and Marathon Digital Holdings recorded surges of 140% and 120% respectively throughout the first two weeks of the year.

Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also rebounded to a lesser degree with Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) more than doubling its price from a low of just over $4 on Dec. 28 to over $8.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) jumped from over $10 on Dec. 28 to a current price of around $13 — increasing by just under a third.

Even Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has managed to regain some of its 2022 losses, after increasing from a low of $7.76 on Dec. 28 to a current price of $11.72, a 51% increase.

While the trust is designed to mirror the price of Bitcoin (BTC) it often trades at a discount or premium to the value of its underlying holdings and is now sitting at a discount of just over 36% after having traded at over a 45% discount on Dec. 28.

Some pundits believe Bitcoin in particular has skyrocketed on the back of the positive inflation figures from the United States released on Jan. 12 — having increased in price by over 17% since then — but it is interesting to note that Dec. 28 seemed to represent a market bottom across many cryptocurrencies and stocks.

Total #crypto market cap is back over 1 trillion dollars!!! pic.twitter.com/wS4N9qjA4G
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) January 17, 2023

While the recent surge in crypto-related stocks is bound to be a huge relief to those who have invested in them, it is worth noting that many of these companies have a long way to go to return to thier all-time highs, as highlighted by a Jan. 10 tweet from financial advisor Genevieve Roch-Decter.

Crypto stocks over the last year:

Voyager -99.7%
Silvergate -90.8%
Marathon Digital -83.1%
Coinbase -82.3%
HIVE Blockchain -81.3%
MicroStrategy -63.9%
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) January 10, 2023

100%: Public Bitcoin miners sold almost everything they mined in 2022

December 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Argo

Publicly listed Bitcoin miners sold off nearly everything they mined in 2022 but appear to have started accumulating reserves once again.

Publicly listed Bitcoin (BTC) miners sold off almost all of the Bitcoin they mined throughout 2022, leading to a debate over whether the sales created "a persistent headwind" for the Bitcoin price or not.

Analyst Tom Dunleavy from blockchain research firm Messari shared the data in a Dec. 26 tweet, indicating that approximately 40,300 of the 40,700 BTC mined by Core Scientific, Riot, Bitfarms, Cleans Park, Marathon, Hut8, HIVE, Iris Energy, Argo and Bit Digital from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30 was sold off.

BTC miners sell roughly 100% of the coins they mine

The 10 public bitcoin miners
detailed here mined ~40.7k BTC and sold ~40.3k in 2022

This is a persistent headwind for BTC and for no other reason a good thesis to be bullish the ETHBTC ratio trade pic.twitter.com/L1iI6Z07p7
— Tom Dunleavy (@dunleavy89) December 26, 2022

The reserves held by mining firms have decreased considerably during the latter half of 2022, particularly throughout November, as the crypto industry reeled from the effects of the FTX fallout.

*Miner reserves vs Bitcoin price from Jul. 1 to Dec. 28. Source: CryptoQuant.*

Dunleavy believes that miners consistently selling off newly produced Bitcoin places downward pressure on the price of the leading cryptocurrency.

However, some industry commentators such as BitMEX’s former CEO, Arthur Hayes, believe the selling pressure created by the increased sales of Bitcoin miners is negligible.

He opined in a Dec. 9 blog post that “even if miners sold all the Bitcoin they produced each day, it would barely impact the markets at all.”

According to Bitcoin Visuals, on Dec. 26 the daily trading volume for Bitcoin was $12.2 billion. The outflow from miners on the same day, according to CryptoQuant, was 919 BTC ($15.35 million), which represents just 0.13% of the total volume traded.

Miner's reserves have rebounded slightly during December, increasing by nearly 1%. The figure contributes to the view shared in a Dec. 27 post by crypto analyst IT Tech that the situation for miners appears to be stabilizing.

#Bitcoin miners - update. Is there anything to worry about?
1.
Miner Outflow
Miner Inflow
Miner Reserve
White line on the bottom - miner to Exchange flow

2. Mining difficulty
3. Miner selling power
4. Hashrate 7D MA

Full analysishttps://t.co/E3o0cgaNxu
— IT Tech (@IT_Tech_PL) December 27, 2022

Miners have faced significant headwinds throughout the year, with high electricity prices, falling crypto market prices and a higher mining difficulty eating into their bottom line.

With the cost of production for miners increasing while the Bitcoin price has been decreasing, miners such as Core Scientific have been forced to sell some of their reserves at a loss to fund their ongoing operations and efforts to expand.

Bitfarms Starts Bitcoin Megafarm Operations in Argentina

September 18, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Argentine Tax Authority AFIP Strengthens Supervision, Finds Three Clandestine Cryptocurrency Mining Farms

September 9, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Bitfarms Adds 18 MW of Capacity to ‘The Bunker’ — Miner’s Daily Production Taps 16.8 BTC per Day

July 29, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Bitfarms sold 3K Bitcoin as part of strategy to improve liquidity and pay debts

June 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

“Selling a portion of our BTC holdings and daily production as a source of liquidity is the best and least expensive method in the current market environment," said chief financial officeJeff Lucas.

Canadian crypto mining firm Bitfarms sold roughly $62 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) in June, using the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt.

In a Tuesday announcement, Bitfarms said it had sold 3,000 Bitcoin in the last seven days, roughly 47% of the crypto mining firm’s roughly 6,349 BTC holdings. According to the company, it will use the funds from the BTC sales — $62 million — to “rebalance its indebtedness by reducing its BTC-backed credit facility with Galaxy Digital.” The sold crypto seemingly included 1,500 BTC Bitfarms used to reduce its credit facility from $100 million to $66 million in June, bringing its debt down to $38 million at the time of publication.

According to Bitfarms chief financial officer Jeff Lucas, the mining firm is “no longer HODLing” all the Bitcoin it produces daily — roughly 14 BTC — instead choosing to “take action to enhance liquidity and to de-leverage and strengthen” the company’s balance sheet. Bitfarms said it also closed a $37-million deal with NYDIG to finance equipment, bringing the firm’s liquidity to roughly $100 million.

“While we remain bullish on long-term BTC price appreciation, this strategic change enables us to focus on our top priorities of maintaining our world-class mining operations and continuing to grow our business in anticipation of improved mining economics,” said Lucas. “We believe that selling a portion of our BTC holdings and daily production as a source of liquidity is the best and least expensive method in the current market environment.”

#Bitfarms Adjusts #HODL Strategy

• Pays down BTC-back credit facility to US$38 million
• Currently holds total of 3,349 BTC
• Daily BTC production of approximately 14 BTC adds further liquidity

More info: https://t.co/xCcIUHkWsU

$BITF #BTC #BitcoinMining #Blockchain pic.twitter.com/L58siaA99c
— Bitfarms (@Bitfarms_io) June 21, 2022

Bitfarms held a reported 4,300 BTC as of January, worth roughly $177 million when the crypto asset was at a price of more than $41,000. Founder and CEO Emiliano Grodzki said at the time the company’s strategy was “to accumulate the most Bitcoin for the lowest cost and in the fastest amount of time.”

The move from Bitfarms came amid extreme price volatility among major cryptocurrencies including BTC and Ether (ETH). On Saturday, the price of Bitcoin dropped under $18,000 for the first time since December 2020 but has since returned to more than $21,000 at the time of publication. The ETH price experienced a similar drop to under $1,000 on Saturday — an 18-month low — before rising to more than $1,200 on Tuesday.

Bitfarms