by • Public mining has seen a 32% decrease in bitcoin holdings over the last 10 months.
• Hash rate expansion is continuing, with public miners making up around 25% of all hash rate.
• Bitcoin production is increasing and companies like Marathon Digital, Hut 8, and Riot Platforms are selling some of their mined bitcoin to cover operating expenses.
Public Mining Update
Public miners have seen a declining trend in holdings throughout 2022, from 46,930 BTC at peak in April 2022, to 31,892 in January 2023 — a 32% decline in 10 months. With Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Northern Data shedding their bitcoin, holdings across public miners are now largely concentrated in Marathon Digital, Hut 8 and Riot Platforms. The network hash rate recently reached 300 EH/s and public miners make up nearly 25% of all hash rate on a given day.
Hash Rate Expansion
The trend of hash rate expansion is “up only” with public miners growing their hash rate by 129% over the last year. This growth has been a significant driver of overall hash rate expansion with the mentioned percentage understated as we’re not including all public miners like Cipher and Terawulf.
Mining Production Update Notes
Marathon made a statement about their choice to sell some bitcoin that the company mined mentioning their plans for further hash rate expansion: “With bitcoin production increasing and becoming more consistent, we made the strategic decision to sell some of our bitcoin…We intend to continue to sell a portion of our bitcoin holdings in 2023 to fund monthly operating costs…The company still expects to have approximately 23 EH/s of capacity installed near the middle of 2023.” HIVE’s production update informed shareholders about selling earned Bitcoin with focus on HODLing green mined from ASICs whereas Riot Platforms announced delayed timeline for growing hash rate due to infrastructure damage stating: “Unfortunately…our previously announced target…is expected to be delayed”.
Bitcoin Production Increase & Sales
Bitcoin production is increasing and companies are selling some of their mined Bitcoin to cover operating expenses as well as for general corporate purposes. Meanwhile HIVE focuses on HODLing green Bitcoin mined from ASICs while Riot Platforms delay its target despite continued progress being made towards completing Building E this quarter.
Conclusion
As public mining continues its downward trend in terms of holdings over the past 10 months along with increasingly consistent Bitcoin production allowing for sales covering operational costs and other corporate purposes, it still remains unclear how much total hashrate will be achieved by mid-2023 despite progress being made at certain sites such as Rockdale Facility’s Building E .
