Publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies sold more BTC in Q1 2026 than in all four quarters of 2025, as business conditions tighten for the mining industry.
Publicly listed BTC miners, including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer, have collectively sold more than 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, according to TheEnergyMag.
The Q1 sales surpassed the 20,000 BTC sold in Q2 2022 during the crypto bear market triggered by the collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem, setting a “new record” for BTC miner sales in a single quarter, TheMinerMag said.
The sales come as hashprice, that is, the computing cost and a critical metric for miner profitability, sits at record low levels under $35 per petahash/second per day (PH/s), according to data from Hashrate Index.
That $35 PH/s level is the breakeven for many Bitcoin miners, particularly those running older mining machines, and the current hashprice of about $33 PH/s per day places about 20% of the mining industry in unprofitable territory.
The heavy BTC sales come as the mining industry struggles with increased competition represented by a rising hashrate, the total computing power expended by miners to secure the network, reduced block rewards and macroeconomic headwinds.
Related: Bitcoin miners face a tougher road to the 2028 halving
BTC held by miners has been declining long-term while treasury companies pour in
The Bitcoin Miner Reserve, a metric tracking all the BTC held by miners, has been gradually decreasing since 2023, according to CryptoQuant.
Bitcoin miners collectively held over 1.86 million BTC at the end of 2023, but only hold about 1.8 million BTC at the time of publication.
Miners periodically sell portions of their BTC to cover operating expenses, but a combination of lower crypto prices and rising energy costs has forced some miners to offload coins they would have held in their corporate treasuries.
“We expect further capitulation among higher-cost operators in H1 2026 unless BTC’s price recovers materially,” asset manager CoinShares said in its Q1 2026 Bitcoin Mining Report.
Standing in sharp contrast to the miners’ selling are Bitcoin treasury companies, like Strategy, which has been a regular buyer of the biggest crypto.
Michael Saylor, the co-founder of the biggest Bitcoin treasury company, earlier this week signaled that Strategy is acquiring more BTC, as the price retreated from the local high of over $73,000 reached this week.
“Think bigger,” Saylor said on Sunday, while sharing the chart of Strategy’s BTC purchase history that has become synonymous with imminent BTC acquisitions.
Magazine: Bitcoin mining industry ‘going to be dead in 2 years’: Bit Digital CEO
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