Bitcoin mining company MARA transferred 298 BTC to Cumberland, a move that can be linked to the company’s new stance on Bitcoin sales.
MARA recently opened the door to Bitcoin sales
According to on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, mining company MARA has just made a transfer from its Bitcoin wallets. The deal took place just nine days after the company announced in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had expanded its digital asset management strategy to allow sales of BTC held on its balance sheet.
Historically, the miner kept the Bitcoin he mined and purchased additional tokens for his treasury. However, it changed its strategy last year to allow the sale of tokens created through its mining operations. The expansion that occurred earlier this month was based on this policy.
Given that the mining company is open to selling Bitcoin now, the latest transaction flowing from its reserves could be significant.
The data for the outflow transactions made by MARA | Source: CryptoQuant on X
As shown in the chart above, this transaction involved about 298 Bitcoin (worth $21 million at the moment). According to CryptoQuant, the move was to Cumberland, a digital asset liquidity platform targeting institutional entities.
MARA’s change of heart came as the company was moving into the AI data center space and amid a bearish pullback in the cryptocurrency sector. Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process, so all miners have to pay a fixed operating cost in the form of electricity bills. The ability of miners to make a profit from their operations depends on the value of the coins they mine, which tends to decline during bearish market phases.
Based on MARA files, CryptoQuant has estimated the average cost of mining BTC.
Looks like the figure has climbed up over the years | Source: CryptoQuant on X
From the chart, it appears that the data from MARA files puts the average cost of Bitcoin mining at $70,027. The cryptocurrency’s spot price is currently hanging around this mark, so the company will break even in its operations.
Other miners can operate more cheaply, depending on the efficiency of their hardware and the cost of their energy. “Highly efficient processes (new hardware + low-cost power) can mine Bitcoin for approximately $45,000 per Bitcoin,” the analytics firm noted.
MARA is not the only Bitcoin mining company looking at the AI sector as a lucrative opportunity. Many major mining companies such as Bitfarms and Cango are focusing on high-performance computing (HPC) businesses.
Bitcoin price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $70,700, down 3.5% over the past week.
The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image by Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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