Crypto-winter forces Riot, Core Scientific, to sell some bitcoin. (Cryptocurrency: BTC-USD)

In the wake of arguably the worst decline in the crypto market in the industry’s short history, miner Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT), Nuclear Science (NASDAQ: CORZ) and Bitfarms (NASDAQ: BITF) has been forced to sell part of their bitcoin (BTC-USD) holdings in an attempt to release capital.

This is because the crypto miners’ performance measurements as a whole have weakened somewhat again in June, as the number of bitcoins (BTC-USD) extracted decreased by 1.8% on average, even though the mining capacity measured by the hash rate jumped by 8.8%, according to the table below.

As miners face rising cryptocurrencies, rising energy prices and increased competition, Riot Blockchain (RIOT), for example, not only saw its bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining and hash rate growth fall M / M in June, but it also sold 300 bitcoins. for a net income of approximately $ 6.2 million to help cover operating costs, namely the development of the Whinstone plant in Rockdale, Texas. Nevertheless, the company has over 22 times as much BTC.

Still, “it’s still important for us to have a strong bitcoin balance, so we have not sold off the balance itself,” Riot CEO Jason Les told Blockworks on July 14, adding that “It is not a strict framework or policy. around that. It is a decision we evaluate on a monthly basis. “

SA contributor Dilantha De Silva, who started coverage of Riot (RIOT) with a strong sales rating towards the end of June, believes that the company can not “make sustainable profits and reiterates that it is a very volatile business that is heavily dependent on fluctuating Bitcoin- prices. “

For Core Scientific (CORZ), which produces the most amount of BTC among its peers, it got rid of 7,202 bitcoins (BTC-USD) last month at an average price of about $ 23K per token for a total dividend of ~ $ 167M. These profits were used to pay for ASIC servers, capital investments in additional data center capacity and planned repayment of debt. Take a look at why SA contributor Made Easy – Finance sees the stock as a team.

Similarly, in June, Bitfarms (BITF) sold 3,352 bitcoins (BTC-USD) for a total dividend of $ 69 million in an effort to reduce total debt and increase liquidity in turbulent market conditions.

During June, the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) has declined 33% as the economic contagion effect in the crypto market triggered by the collapse of the crypto exchange Celsius and crypto-focused hedge fund Three Arrows Capital continues to spread. It is no surprise that crypto miners, most of whom cited poor market conditions in recent months, experienced similar downturns at the time, according to this chart.

The $ 1T question most people think about is where does the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) go from here? One way to look at the matter is token production costs, which have dropped to around $ 13,000 from about $ 24,000 in early June, JP Morgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note to customers on July 13. The decline in bitcoin production costs comes when BTC miners try to protect their profitability by distributing more mining rigs, and therefore increase mining efficiency in a move that could be negative for BTC prices going forward, he added.

The falling production costs have been primarily driven by “the decline in electricity consumption according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, while the hash rate has fluctuated in recent months without any clear downtrend,” Panigirtzoglou explained.

“While it clearly helps miners’ profitability and potentially reduces the pressure on miners to sell Bitcoin holdings to provide liquidity or to reduce leverage, the decline in production costs may be perceived as negative for the Bitcoin price outlook going forward,” Panigirtzoglou noted. “The cost of production is perceived by some market participants as the lower limit of Bitcoin’s price range in a bear market.”

Earlier, (June 11) Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain bitcoin mining growth slowed the most in May.