For the first time in three months, the top 13 publicly traded crypto mining companies have sold more bitcoins (BTC) than they produced.

According to Bitcoin mining research platform TheMinerMag, the liquidation-to-production ratio for miners like Marathon Digital, Core Scientific, Argo Blockchain, Bitfarms, Bit Digital, Hut 8, Iris Energy, and Terawulf was 105% in October, meaning they sold all their mined coins plus assets from their holdings.

Miners Sold More BTC Than Mined in October

In October, Bitcoin’s 28% rally to around $35,000 brought the leading digital asset to an 18-month high. The amount of liquidation by the top 13 public mining companies tapped into BTC’s 30% monthly gain, as the firms sold 5,492 BTC – worth roughly $164 million.

October’s liquidation-to-production ratio was higher than that of July, August, and September, which had 64%, 77%, and 77%, respectively. The ratio peaked as the bear market began to take its toll in June 2022 to 360% before plunging in August of the same year to around 80%.

Notably, some mining companies have consistently sold all their mined BTC every month, but firms like Marathon, Hut 8, Cipher, CleanSpark, and Bit Digital use a hybrid treasury strategy, and they liquidated more in October than in previous months. Bit Digital and Hut 8, which sold 422 and 365 BTC, respectively, had the highest individual ratios, liquidating over 300% of their monthly productions.

Preparation for Bitcoin’s Upcoming Halving

Bitcoin miners could sell a higher portion of their mined assets for several reasons, including replenishing their cash reserves or realizing profits off price rallies. Another major reason is to stock up cash in preparation for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event, which would slash their block rewards by half.

The Bitcoin halving occurs approximately every four years or after every 210,000 blocks and will continue in the same manner until all 21 million BTC have been mined.

The mechanism controls the issuance of new BTC by reducing the number of coins mined in a day. The last halving event in May 2020 slashed the network’s block reward from 12.5 BTC to 6,25 BTC, and the next, scheduled for April 2024, will implement a reduction to 3,125 BTC.