As the world’s biggest cryptocurrency is moving close to its scheduled halving event, Bitcoin miners seem to like feeling the heat. The much anticipated event comes in with emerging geopolitical tensions and a shift to a risk-off environment. This has led to a decline in shares of leading mining companies with added selling pressure.
Bitcoin halving adding sell pressure?
According to reports, Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT), and CleanSpark Inc (NASDAQ: CLSK) have all seen their stock prices fall for at least three consecutive days. However, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners exchange-traded fund (NASDAQ: WGMI) plummeted by around 28% this month.
The global crypto market on Wednesday recorded a slight recovery amid increasing selling pressure. The cumulative digital assets market cap is up by 1.33% over the last day to stand at $2.32 trillion. The 24 hour trading volume is down by 17% to stand at $95.23 billion.
This comes in with Iran’s recent attacks against Israel have contributed to a risk averse sentiment among investors. It had further added pressure to the decline in mining stocks.
Bitcoin price is down by around over 8% in the last 7 days. BTC is trading at an average price of $63,561, at the press time.
What does leaders says?
Upcoming Bitcoin halving is scheduled to reduce mining rewards from 900 to 450 tokens per day. It has now become a concern for miners. Despite these challenges, Mining companies’s CEO remains positive about the industry’s long-term aims.
These leaders have highlighted low-cost operations, efficient equipment, and growing demand are the factors. This can offset the around $10 billion annual revenue loss due to the halving.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot Blockchain, showed confidence in Bitcoin’s long term plans. He anticipates positive movement in the crypto market over the coming months. On the other hand, Cipher Mining’s CEO, Tyler Page mentioned steady adoption rates with bullish sentiment on BTC.
Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) recorded share price declines of approx 53% and 54%, respectively, since reaching their year-to-date (YTD) highs in February. Meanwhile, CleanSpark reached a 3 year high of $23.40 on March 25. Since then it has dropped by 38.1% to trade at $14.48. Despite this decline, the stock remains up nearly 250% for the year.
Mining companies are banking on increased demand from new spot ETFs to boost Bitcoin prices and mitigate the adverse effects of the halving. Traditional asset management firms launched these ETFs in January, attracting significant investments from a broader investor base.
