Market conditions have swept through the long-term plans of miners like a typhoon: if at the beginning of 2022 the majoritydeclared a desire for long-term retentionmined coins, then by the end of the year, crypto miners came up with noticeably depleted reserves. The largest holder of Marathon Digital was holding fast until the very end, but the temptation of the increased price of Bitcoin turned out to be too great.
Image Source: Cryptocurrency ExchangeStormGain
By 2022, the miners approached with enthusiasm, andsome with a large investment scale. As a result, the queue for ASICs stretched for more than six months, and the debt-to-equity ratio of a number of players exceeded 10 times the size. The industry leader in terms of production capacity - Core Scientific - was buying up competitors at exorbitant prices. As a result, the company also took the lead in terms of liabilities and is now going through bankruptcy proceedings.
Image source: luxor.tech
Bitcoin falls below $30,000put miners in front of a difficult choice: to sell stocks (often at a loss) or leave the market. CORE opted for the first option, sacrificing the goal of being #1 among peers in terms of inventory levels.
Stocks of publicly traded miners as of April 2022 Image source: arcane.no
But Marathon Digital managed to saveleadership, gaining over 12 thousand BTC by the end of the year. However, the largest holder also faced difficulties due to loans taken, including loans secured by Bitcoin. The company sold coins for the first time in January, and the current reserve has decreased to 11,418 BTC.
In the absence of significant growththe company will have to continue to sell off its stocks of cryptocurrencies, as there are only 4-6 months of funds left to support operating expenses. At the same time, the miner does not refuse to expand, planning to increase production capacity from 11 EH / s to 23 EH / s by the middle of this year.
Image source: btc.com
Due to the desire of mining companies to increase their capacity against all odds, in January alone, the average network hashrate jumped by 15%, setting a new record.
Analytical group StormGain
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