Bitcoin price may spark ‘war of miners’ — 1-day pool outflows hit $18M

Bitcoin (BTC) losing 5% in a day has sparked major changes for miners, data shows as mining pools suddenly send large amounts of BTC to exchanges.

Data from on-chain monitoring resource CryptoQuant reveals that Sept. 2 saw outflows spike across major mining pools.

CryptoQuant expects “war” over BTC bull market

Taking three pools — Poolin, Slush and the now-defunct HaoBTC — total outflows for Wednesday hit 1,630 BTC ($18.5 million).

The figure dwarfs those seen recently, and came as BTC/USD rapidly lost $12,000 levels to bounce off $11,150.

Mining pool outflow comparison. Source: CryptoQuant/ Twitter

For Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, miners may be taking the opportunity to rearrange the competition, now that Bitcoin is trading broadly higher than in most of 2020.

“I think it's going to be the war of miners between those who want a Bitcoin price rally and those who don't,” he told Cointelegraph in private comments. 

“As I know, some Chinese miners already realize their mining profitability (return on investment), and they might not want new mining competitors joining the industry because of the bull market.”

Despite coins likely making their way to exchanges, the danger of a sell-off due to the price drop remains less likely, Ki continued.

“Miners are good traders,” he added. “I think they are just looking for selling opportunities, not capitulation.”

Fundamentals stay near record high

Miners are no strangers to price-induced transfers, something which bolsters CryptoQuant’s theory. In May, directly after the block subsidy halving, similar behavior was observed as price volatility ensued.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, network fundamentals still highlight optimism among participants, with hash rate and difficulty circling all-time highs.

At press time, estimates placed the upcoming difficulty adjustment, set for four days’ time, to lower difficulty by an almost imperceptible 0.13%.