Ether Miners Are Hoarding

Miners’ ether holdings are back near its all-time high of 1.69 million ETH set in October, according to crypto market data platform Santiment.
The steady rise from the low of 1.64 million observed in November high confidence levels in the project among the majority block creators, at the very least relative to the current market conditions, according to Santiment's founder Maksim Balashevich.
The uptick in the miner balance is not surprising, given the cryptocurrency's price bottomed out below $120 in December and rose by 40 percent in January. After all, miners want to maximize their earnings at all times.
With prices in a strong uptrend, Balashevich thinks the last all-time high of ether hoarding could be broken soon.
Balances had declined from 1.69 million to 1.64 million in November last year, as sustained drop in prices forced some of the miners to liquidate their holdings, according Balashevich.

Ether's price topped out above $366 in June 2019 and fell to $150 in October. A price slide of that magnitude hurts revenue, forcing small and inefficient miners to scale back operations.
While moving off blockchain, these miners often sell their coins to make up for mining-related losses, adding to bearish pressures around prices.
For instance, bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency by market value, fell by over 17 percent in November and 5 percent in December, and the major portion of the drop was fueled by miner selling, according to the analyst Willy Woo.