Ethereum Miner Balance Hits Four-Year High Weeks Before Merger

Experts believe miners are hoarding more ETH in anticipation of price spikes and forked PoW tokens.

The Ethereum merger is scheduled for September 15, which will see the Ethereum blockchain move from its current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mining to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

The merger is touted as one of the biggest upgrades to the Ethereum blockchain, as it would help the network move to a more energy-efficient way of verifying transactions and eliminate PoW mining altogether. As the merger date approaches, the balance of the Ether (ETH) miner has reached a new four-year high.

According to data from Oklink, the Ethereum miner address balance has exceeded 260,000 ETH with a total of 261,848 ETH valued at over $415 million at the current price. The accumulation of miners reached a new high in four years with similar levels seen in April 2018.

ETH Miner Address Balance Source: Oklink

The growing accumulation of ETH by miners has been attributed to a few factors, the first being the anticipation of a price surge following the key upgrade. While many pundits called the merger a "buy the rumor and sell the news" event, the miners' buildup indicates growing bullish sentiment.

Another major factor is the hard fork. The majority of ETH miners are in favor of a hard fork to keep the PoW chain alive and continue mining. So, in the event of a hard fork, those miners holding the ETH would also receive an airdrop of the forked token. Although the value of the forked token may not appreciate in line with the ETH mainchain, it would still secure additional capital.

A forked PoW token has gained support from a few major crypto exchanges like Bitfinex, while Binance has stated that if demand for the forked token is large enough, they wouldn't mind listing it.

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