Total ETH held by miners reaches highest since 2016

Total ETH held by miners reaches highest since 2016

According to the latest trends, the amount of Ether (ETH) that is currently being held by crypto miners has reached record-breaking levels in terms of US dollars, as they are still reluctant to sell.

The current balance held by Ether miners is now the largest since it has been shortly after the network was launched five years back. After conversion to USD, Ether is at its historic peak of $1.85 billion, as per analytics by platform Santiment.

The firm had stated that 532,750 ETH is the highest balance been held by miners since July 13, 2016. The amount equates to around 0.45 per cent of the total supply of Etehereum, presently at 117.8 million ETH.

Miners usually happen to sell the asset very regularly for covering expenses, including hardware costs and electricity. The reluctance for selling suggests that miners would probably be holding out for further price increment.

Ethereum’s hash rate that is often seen as a reflection of network health and security, slumped while it was a miner exodus from China along with Bitcoin. The hash rate of Ethereum fell to 477 terahashes per second (TH/s) late in June 2021, but as of now, it has fully recovered in the last three months and has, in fact, increased to new peaks. It is currently up by 150 per cent since the beginning of 2021.

All the above has happened while China-based Ethereum mining pools are getting far behind in the race, and SparkPool and BeePool suspending their company operations in recent weeks.

Curiously, no noticeable drop has been seen in the hash rate that has hit an all-time high of 745 TH/s on October 5.

According to a previous news report by Cointelegraph, Ether miners had started hoarding their assets after the London hard fork in August 2021. 

A recent study by the Kraken crypto exchange had also suggested that miners were expecting higher price increases from potential deflationary properties soon after the launch of Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, which happens to burn some of the transaction fees.

The upgrade went live on August 5, and since then, 473,120 ETH worth around $1.7 billion has been burned already as per Ultrasound.money.

Furthermore adding to the supply squeeze, a huge percentage has also been staked on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain contract. 

According to the Eth2 explorer, about 6.7 per cent or 7.9 million ETH has also been locked for staking. At current prices of around $3,577, this is equivalent to nearly $28 billion worth.