An early Bitcoin miner known to have accumulated coins during the network's infancy moved 2,650 BTC, valued at roughly $203 million, in multiple transactions to FalconX and Cumberland over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks. This large transfer, revealed by blockchain analytics, suggests the miner may be seeking liquidity or preparing to sell after years of dormancy.
The funds moved in three separate transactions: two for 1,000 BTC each and one for 650 BTC. The miner’s address still holds an additional 6,000 BTC, worth about $462 million. Transfers to OTC desks are often interpreted as strategic efforts by large holders to access deeper liquidity discreetly, avoiding the market impact that visible sell orders on public exchanges could cause. Early miner wallets attract significant attention as indicators of potential increases in long-term supply entering the market.
This activity surfaced amid a period of constrained Bitcoin price action. Bitcoin has been trading within a narrow range recently and dropped slightly to around $77,300 at the time of reporting. This price sits well below widely cited estimates of the average Bitcoin mining production cost of approximately $93,175 per BTC, a figure that implies many miners are currently operating at a loss when selling at market prices.
However, cost estimates vary across data providers. For example, Capriole Investments estimates the average mining production cost closer to $57,700 per BTC, while CryptoRanks places public miners’ breakeven point near $74,600. Such differences reflect the variety of mining operation scales and equipment efficiencies. When prices fall below these thresholds, smaller or less efficient mining operations face severe financial stress, as they must often liquidate mined coins at a loss to cover operational expenses.
Industry research has highlighted that a notable share of Bitcoin miners—up to 20% in some reports—could be running unprofitable setups, particularly those reliant on outdated machinery. To counterbalance weaker mining revenues, some companies are diversifying. For instance, Soluna Holdings has partially offset declining mining income by developing data center hosting services, which significantly outperformed crypto mining revenue in recent quarters.