Miners Dump 16K BTC – Is Bitcoin’s Bull Run Hitting a Speed Bump?

Bitcoin's rally faces a stress test as miners unload a whopping 16,000 BTC. Is this a tactical retreat or the first crack in the bull market's armor?

Miners cashing out isn't new—but timing is everything. With Bitcoin hovering near all-time highs, the move raises eyebrows. Are they locking in profits before a potential pullback, or just covering operational costs (read: paying off those over-leveraged mining rigs)?

The market's watching closely. Historically, miner sell-offs precede short-term volatility. But let's not forget: Bitcoin's survived worse—remember when traditional finance called it a 'bubble' every 20% dip? Yet here we are.

One thing's certain: Wall Street's 'experts' will spin this as proof crypto's unstable—right before quietly increasing their own BTC allocations. The irony writes itself.

 Key Takeaways

BTC miner sales hit a yearly high as larger players dump their stash, adding selling pressure on exchanges. Willy WOO expected the price to remain range-bound for its next move. 

Bitcoin [BTC] miner selling pressure has risen to a yearly high, raising another risk for the BTC extended rally in the short term. 

CryptoQuant data showed that miner sales to exchanges hit 16K BTC on the 15th of July, surpassing the recent high seen in April. 

Source: CryptoQuant

And the offloading was coming from some of the largest BTC miners, heightening profit-taking that could either chop or dump BTC in the NEAR term. 

Large miners offload 3K BTC

Per CryptoQuant data, miners with a 100-1K BTC balance have reduced their wallet holdings from 68K BTC to 65K BTC. That’s 3K BTC offloaded since mid-June. 

Source: CryptoQuant 

During the April recovery from $75K to over $100K, this cohort offloaded about 5K BTC before they started accumulating again from mid-May when the price was range-bound.

Now, after the breakout above $120K, they’ve become a key source of selling pressure into the rally. 

But pressure wasn’t coming from miners alone. The overall amount of BTC sent to exchanges increased significantly after the breakout upswing.

CryptoQuant stated that the average daily BTC sales hit 58K coins, mainly from large holders (100-1K BTC wallets), further underscoring rising profit-taking. The analytics firm added,  

“Large Bitcoin holders drove the spike in exchange deposits. The daily amount of Bitcoin sent to exchanges in batches of 100 or more BTC surged from 13K to 58K BTC in the same period.”

Source: CryptoQuant 

In other words, selling pressure increased 4x this week as BTC broke above $120K. But, over the same period, ETFs saw massive inflows but didn’t absorb the whole sell-off. 

Notably, the ETFs bought 21K BTC, but BTC treasuries acquired about 5K coins.

Source: Glassnode

At press time, BTC traded at $118K, and analyst Willy Woo projected the asset could remain range-bound for a while before picking the next direction. 

The analyst stated,

“I can see a decent consolidation here and lots of bets being purged. Patience is likely to be rewarded.”