Nevada-based Bitcoin mining firm – CleanSpark –  has reached a significant milestone by surpassing 10,000 BTC in its treasury. All the Bitcoins were mined exclusively from its US-based operations.

The latest figure reflects a 236% year-over-year (YoY) increase in its Bitcoin holdings.

CleanSpark Hits Milestone

Zach Bradford, CEO and President of the firm attributed the milestone to the company’s strategic focus on efficient and responsible scaling, emphasizing the use of American energy and workforce to support its mining operations.

In a statement, Gary Vecchiarelli, Chief Financial Officer of CleanSpark, said,

This achievement is not just about a number, it is a direct reflection of the success of our financial strategy and how far our industry-leading operations have come, which have evolved since we mined our first bitcoin in December 2021. By avoiding unfavorable counterparty exposure and leveraging our bitcoin to lower our cost of capital, we are positioning CleanSpark as a leader in responsible financial innovation.”

According to data compiled by BitcoinTreasuries, CleanSpark trails behind other mining firms such as MARA Holdings, which holds 44,893 BTC, and Riot Platforms, with 17,722 BTC. On the other hand, CleanSpark is followed by Florida-based miner Hut 8 Mining, which currently has 10,096 BTC.

Miners Prioritize Holding Bitcoin

To cover operational expenses, Bitcoin miners often sell portions of their mined Bitcoin. However, firms such as MARA Holdings prioritize retaining their BTC reserves. Its CEO, Fred Thiel, recently said that retail investors should consider buying Bitcoin and just let the crypto asset appreciate in value. It recently lent 7,377 BTC to third parties, which was worth around $730 million at the time of the deal, for small yields.

CleanSpark, too, appears to have followed a similar strategy. In 2024, the firm mined 7,024 BTC but sold only 12.65 BTC in December, preserving most of its holdings.

This sentiment is also depicted in a recent report which indicated that Bitcoin miners have significantly slowed their sales since April 2024. While a brief uptick in exchange flows occurred in November 2024 due to a post-election BTC price surge, miners have since reduced profit-taking. With current profitability, these miners have resorted to holding their Bitcoin over selling the stash.

Bitcoin’s volatile end of the week resulted in a price drop toward $91,000 and a subsequent surge to $96,000 before the asset calmed roughly in the middle.

The altcoins continue to struggle as SOL, ADA, and AVAX have charted 4% daily declines.

BTC Calms at $94K

It was nothing short of a volatile rollercoaster of a week for the primary cryptocurrency. It all started quite promising after the most recent MicroStrategy purchase on Monday, as the asset flew past $100,000 for the first time this year and kept climbing on Tuesday morning to over $102,000.

However, that’s when the landscape changed, and BTC slumped hard later that day, and on Wednesday, it slumped to $96,000. Although that was a painful correction on its own, bitcoin kept plunging in the following days to $91,200 (on Bitstamp) on Thursday, which became its lowest price tag in over a month.

The bulls managed to intervene at this point and pushed BTC north. More volatility ensued with several big moves that eventually pushed the asset to $96,000. However, it failed there and has lost almost two grand since then to trade at $94,000 as of now.

Its market cap has risen to just under $1.870 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts is up to 54.5%.

ADA, SOL Struggle

Most altcoins are in the red today as well. Ethereum slipped below $3,200 on Thursday, and even though it managed to recover some ground since that low is close to breaking below it now after a 2.3% daily decline. XRP is among the few alts with minor gains today.

In contrast, SOL, ADA, SUI, AVAX, and LINK continue to lose value, with losses of up to 4%. SOL is well below $190 now, while ADA is just over $0.9. More painful losses come from OM, ICP, and RNDR from the larger cap alts.

The total crypto market cap has lost some steam since yesterday and is down to $3.43 trillion on CG.

TL:DR;

• Crypto markets went through a more volatile end of the week, but larger investors seem unfazed as they keep accumulating two of the biggest tokens by market cap.
• The question now is whether XRP and DOGE will rebound swiftly, given the massive purchases completed by the so-called whales.

It was a rollercoaster of a week for the entire crypto market, with BTC surging past $102,000 at the start of it only to dump by more than ten grand within two days to a multi-week low.

The altcoins followed suit, as DOGE, for example, stood close to $0.4 at one point this week but then plunged toward $0.31, representing a 22% retracement.

XRP went above $2.5 briefly on January 4 and to $2.47 on January 7, but the market-wide correction pushed it to a low of $2.2 on January 9 before it calmed to around $2.33 in the past 24 hours.

Such enhanced fluctuations tend to scare off certain investors, especially retail, but that has not been the case with whales. Data from Santiment, shared by Ali Martinez, show that XRP and DOGE whales went on an accumulation spree amid this market uncertainty.

Those holding the largest meme coin by market cap increased their stash by adding more than 470 million DOGE in 48 hours alone. In USD terms, this would put the total accumulation at about $150 million, with an average price of $0.33 per token.

The XRP case is even more bullish as whales purchased more than a billion tokens within the same timeframe. An average price of around $2.3 puts this two-day acquisition at $2.3 billion.

Whales bought roughly 1 billion $XRP in the last 48 hours! pic.twitter.com/XUlibpXkz5

— Ali (@ali_charts) January 10, 2025

It’s worth noting that both assets reacted to this market-wide crash in a less painful manner compared to the previous one at the end of 2024, when BTC slumped toward $91,000 once again.

Back then, XRP tumbled hard, slipping below $2 on a couple of occasions. So far, during this correction, the token’s low was 10% higher at $2.2, perhaps assisted by the aforementioned large purchases.

DOGE’s scenario was similar as it plummeted to just over $0.26 on December 30, while its bottom now came at over $0.31.

Consequently, it’s safe to say that the whale accumulations helped both assets during the crash, and they could have an even greater effect if they continue and the market rebounds in the next few days.