Cryptocurrency investors woke up on the morning of March 15 with uneasiness. Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency, fell from $72,000 to $66,700 last night. The bill for this decline was reflected in liquidation data. The amount of liquidation exceeded 680 million dollars.
While investors were investigating the reasons behind the decline, the activity on the Bitcoin mining side attracted attention. Miners started to prepare after the halving.
The data indicates that challenging days await Bitcoin.
Bitcoin mining dominates
There are many reasons behind Bitcoin's (BTC) decline during the day. The sharp decline in the US stock markets, the US PPI data coming in above expectations, speculation that the FED may not start cutting interest rates are among the reasons. On the crypto side, however, the most important agenda item that shook Bitcoin was mining.
The bill for Bitcoin mining is rising
Bitcoin mining difficulty, an important piece of data, reached an all-time high of 83.95 trillion hashes over the past day. Increasing mining difficulty means that miners spend more energy and computing power to find the right hash in a new block. Therefore, the record-high mining difficulty has sounded the alarm bells.
Bitcoin miners are currently spending around $20,000 per Bitcoin. After Halving, block rewards will be halved. Miners will have to spend more energy. After Halving, the cost of mining is expected to rise to $50,000.
Miners have made an average profit of nearly 200 percent on the BTC they have mined in the last year. For this reason, miners started selling their BTC to minimize the cost increase after the halving and prepare for the challenging period. Sales are expected to continue in the coming days. Especially after the halving, it is rumored that many mining companies may melt all their BTC stocks to resist the costs.
Mining companies suffered losses
Bitcoin mining companies Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain, Canaan Inc and Cipher Mining's shares traded on the stock exchange fell between 6 and 8 percent.
Negative data in the US and the shelving of interest rate cut expectations were effective in the share decline. Miners started to fall under the loss of share value and cost increase.
Especially the steps to be taken by Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain have become a matter of curiosity.
The pre-halving bull run called pre-halving is about to end. Reaching an all-time high of over $73,700, Bitcoin realized the bull run expected after the halving early.
Apart from Bitcoin mining, another negative data came from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which are reflected as bullish indicators, remained far away from the net inflow of $ 1.05 billion. Net inflows to ETFs were close to 150 million dollars last day. Institutions have also reduced their appetite for ETFs.
