Bitcoin is still holding steady above $60,000, but recent actions by miners may do so disturb this stability soon. The recent halving reduced the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3,125 BTC, which means miners now receive half as much for verifying transactions and mining fresh blocks. As noted in a recent report by Kaiko, miners’ income has plummeted since the halving, and miners are starting to feel the pressure.

Bitcoin under increased pressure

To continue operating, Bitcoin miners rely heavily on two sources of revenue: mining rewards and transaction fees. The Bitcoin market is cyclical and each halving has historically led to increased selling pressure from miners. Data shows that the recent April halving led to: Bitcoin hash value decrease and mining profitability is currently the lowest in three years.

For miners with high operating costs, this drastic reduction in wages means they must find other ways to generate income and finance their operations. For many, the only option is to sell some of their BTC holdings. The findings show that Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms, the two largest Bitcoin miners, currently hold over $1.6 billion worth of BTC.

Interestingly, the jump in Bitcoin network fees before and after halving mostly offset operating costs and necessitated sales. According to Kaiko, network fees accounted for 16% of the BTC earned by Marathon Digital in April, up from 4.5% in March.

However, recent trading activity and the decline in volumes over the past few days mean a decline in network fee revenues and an enhance in the likelihood of miners selling their resources.

What’s next for BTC?

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $61,888 and is down 1.20% in the last 24 hours. The next three to six months will be crucial in determining the extent to which halving and mining sales impact the Bitcoin price. If demand remains powerful and most enormous miners can weather the revenue decline without selling too many of their shares, the price could hold steady or even begin to rise.

Fortunately, there are still many of them catalysts for price increases which could offset the impending sell-off from miners. Therefore, Bitcoin has a good chance defending the $60,000 price level. An example is the widespread adoption of BTC via Spot Bitcoin ETFs. Some Bitcoin whales are also taking advantage of price consolidation to replenish their holdings. Chain data shows that whales are short-term holders now they accumulate approximately 200,000 BTC per week.

Featured image from Money, chart from Tradingview.com