Bitcoin Mining CEOs Stay ‘Optimistic’ Ahead of Halving, Reports Bernstein

Crypto News– CEOs of leading Bitcoin mining companies maintain an optimistic outlook ahead of this week’s halving event, despite their failure to outperform Bitcoin year-to-date, according to research and brokerage firm Bernstein.

Bitcoin Mining CEOs Stay ‘Optimistic’ Ahead of Halving, Reports Bernstein

The underperformance is attributed to significant flows into U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have diverted retail liquidity away from miner stocks, along with concerns about the halving’s impact on miners’ revenue, noted Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra in a note to clients on Monday.

In recent interviews conducted by Bernstein, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel highlighted that the market has largely viewed mining stocks as mere proxies for Bitcoin. Following the launch of ETFs, a prevalent trade has emerged where investors go long on spot Bitcoin ETFs while shorting miner stocks, further explaining the underperformance.

Zack Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark, expressed confidence to Bernstein that Bitcoin mining stocks would perform better post-halving, as it would disproportionately benefit the consolidating winners compared to smaller, less efficient miners.

Bradford anticipates that the mining industry will consolidate into four leading public miners: CleanSpark, Marathon, Riot Platforms, and Cipher Mining. Thiel echoed this sentiment, reportedly identifying CleanSpark as their primary competitor in the race for acquisition targets.

How the Bitcoin Halving Affects Mining Operations

The upcoming Bitcoin halving event is now just five days away or approximately 800 blocks, as indicated by The Block’s Bitcoin Halving Countdown page. This sets a potential date of April 20 around 5:40 a.m. UTC (1:40 a.m. ET).

Bitcoin halvings are programmed to occur automatically every 210,000 blocks, which translates to roughly every four years. When a halving event takes place, miners receive 50% fewer bitcoins as a subsidy reward for every block they successfully mine and add to the blockchain. With Bitcoin’s next halving event, the subsidy reward for miners on the network will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. However, miners will continue to earn additional transaction fee rewards for each block mined, just as they do under normal circumstances.