HUT 8 Mining, a leading Bitcoin miner, announced that banks have recently been approaching the company to request direct purchase of bitcoin.  

The information came from Asher Genoot, CEO of the company, in statements to Bloomberg. As the executive explains, this is a situation that has become very common lately.

In that sense, Gennot believes that we are facing a supply shortage of digital currency in exchanges, which is affecting large banking institutions that offer cryptocurrency services. A situation that has led them to approach miners to obtain bitcoin. 

In particular, the executive explained that the banks' interest focuses not only on the BTC reserves that Hut 8 has, but also on its production capabilities. The company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, is listed as one of the largest in the bitcoin mining sector, standing out as the fourth largest holder of the cryptocurrency. HUT 8 currently has 9,110 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at around $610 million at the current exchange rate. 

Although Gennot declined to identify the banking institutions that have made the request, he said the group includes some of the largest banks in the industry. 

The executive's statements are made in a context in which the 11 exchange-traded funds approved in the United States have accumulated around 500,000 BTC since last January 11.  

In this way, the success of ETFs has generated a sudden demand for bitcoins, which leads to a shortage of BTC on centralized exchanges and makes access to the digital currency difficult.  

Several analysts draw attention to the fact that banks are now so interested in bitcoin mining and the development of the currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto. A trend that has been observed since last year and that, after the approval of the US ETFs, has become more evident.  

Since last February the main banks and financial institutions in the United States have been pressuring the SEC to readjust the guidelines that prevent them from offering cryptocurrency services to their clients . They also want to market the ETFs to the public. 

All this occurs while we are just a few weeks away from the halving, the halving of bitcoin miners' rewards.  In that sense, the change in rewards from USD 6.25 to $3.12, which will occur approximately on April 20, has a great influence. The CEO of HUT 8 recalls that the drop in income by 50% , which will go from 900 BTC to 450 BTC per day, will have a great impact “because now there is growing demand but less supply.”