Bitcoin’s Test of All-Time Highs Means Old Miners Are Cashing Out

Bitcoin’s recent surge to new all-time highs has prompted some early miners to cash out their long-dormant bitcoin holdings. As the price of BTC reached around $69,000 and then experienced a sharp decline to $62,000 on Tuesday, on-chain data revealed that 1,000 bitcoin, equivalent to approximately $69 million, were moved to Coinbase from addresses that have been inactive for over a decade and are associated with miners. This influx of tokens to a major cryptocurrency exchange could potentially lead to a significant price drop due to the market’s thin liquidity. CoinDesk interviewed Bradley Park, an analyst at CryptoQuant, who compared this event to the increase in BTC inflows observed before the 40% price drop in March 2020 amid the escalation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The influx of bitcoin into exchanges at that time was followed by a substantial decline in its price, with BTC bottoming out at $3,850.