Bitcoin traders switched to profit taking in May

In May, many investors successfully sold their accumulated bitcoins, according to a research note from investment bank Goldman Sachs.

The authors of the report recorded several jumps in the SOPR index.

The growth of this indicator indicates that in a specific period of time, most transactions for the sale of cryptocurrency turned out to be profitable. A similar situation was observed in December 2020.

The authors of the report noted:

The growth of SOPR suggests that there has been a large-scale profit-taking in the spot markets.

Goldman Sachs also emphasized that over the past month, the number of bitcoins on centralized exchanges has decreased by about 12%. At the same time, the volume of ether (ETH) on the trading floors, on the contrary, increased slightly.

May also saw a surge in transaction fees on the BTC and ETH networks.

User activity on leading blockchains has increased by more than 15%, which has led to an increase in the cost of sending funds.

Last month, the bitcoin hashrate increased by 5.4%, while miners’ income jumped by 16.4%, analysts at the investment bank noted.