Bitcoin (BTC) Miners Intensify Selling Spree as Puell Multiple Hints Market Top Might Be Near

Bitcoin (BTC) miners have intensified their selling spree since the cryptocurrency crossed the $100K milestone. In December alone, miners sold 140K BTC, worth $13.72B.

Bitcoin [BTC] miners have been ramping up their selling activity ever since the cryptocurrency crossed the $100K mark. In December alone, miners have sold 140K BTC, which is valued at $13.72B at the time of writing.

According to data from Santiment, this selling spree has seen the miner balance shrink from over 2M to 1.95M coins.

BTC steady above $100K

Despite this aggressive selling, the king coin has managed to hold strong above $100K.

However, the intensity of the miner sell-off seems less severe when gauged through the metric of miner outflows. This metric tracks all miner wallets and their transfers to exchanges.

On the 12th of November, BTC saw its highest daily miner sell-off at 25K BTC. But the pressure has been easing since, as indicated by the decreasing miner outflows.

Perhaps the bulk of the selling might have occurred via OTC (Over The Counter) markets.

That said, the overall December sell-off was too much for the demand from ETFs to handle. In the past two weeks, BTC ETFs have seen $4.9B in inflows. During this same time period, MicroStrategy purchased $3.6B in BTC.

If we exclude Mara Digital and other companies with BTC corporate treasuries, then ETFs and MicroStrategy together clocked up $8.3B in BTC demand over the past two weeks. This was slightly less than the $13.72B in supply from miners.

So, should this intense miner selling be a cause for concern for your portfolio? We checked the Puell Multiple to gain some insight.

For those who don’t know, the Puell Multiple helps users gauge BTC valuation and cycles from the perspective of miners. If the metric climbs to the upper band, then BTC’s value is deemed unsustainably high.

On the other hand, a low Puell Multiple reading suggests that BTC is relatively undervalued.

In early 2024, the metric hit 2.4, marking a local BTC top at $73.7K. At press time, the metric was reading 1.3, with not much left before crossing 2 or the upper band.

So, according to the Puell Multiple and the miners’ perspective, BTC was not yet overvalued or heated, but that could change if the metric went above 2.

Meanwhile, BTC consolidated below $102K as we approached the Fed rate decision on 18 December.