Bitcoin miners flip to accumulation as fees spike

Bitcoin miners returned to net accumulation after six weeks of selling, posting three consecutive days of positive net position change beginning June 5. The selling streak ran from April 23 through June 4. The net position change metric tracks whether miners are adding to or drawing down their bitcoin holdings.

The change in miner flows came as bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000 before a modest rebound of about 1.6% to near $63,100. The accumulation started after that sub-$60,000 low and followed a similar sequence of miner behavior observed earlier in the year.

Transaction fee revenue for miners increased in May to 89 BTC, the highest monthly total so far this year. That compares with 80 BTC in February, 79 BTC in March and 74 BTC in April. Early June fee receipts totaled about 26 BTC for the first eight days; that figure is partial and does not represent the full month.

Higher fee receipts add on-chain revenue for miners and can reduce the amount of bitcoin they need to sell to cover operating expenses such as electricity and equipment financing. The rise in fee income coincided with the shift from net selling to net accumulation.

Derivatives markets showed lower leverage at the start of June. Total open interest in bitcoin futures and options fell from roughly $31.26 billion in late May to near $22.31 billion after touching about $21.09 billion. The prevailing funding rate was around 0.005%, slightly below a 0.006% reading recorded in early June.

A positive funding rate indicates a net long bias among traders. Market data also showed some large accounts selling and realizing losses during the recent price moves.

Market participants are monitoring miner net position change, fee revenue through June and total open interest as concurrent indicators of market structure. The reported figures for miner flows, fees and derivatives provide a snapshot of conditions in early June.