Bitcoin Miners' First Quarter 2026 Sell-Off Surpasses Total for All of 2025

According to Miner Weekly's weekly report data, in the first quarter of 2026, publicly listed Bitcoin miners sold over 32,000 BTC, marking the largest quarterly sell-off on record.

This figure has already exceeded the net sales for all four quarters of 2025, despite many companies' first-quarter reports not yet being finalized.

Major mining companies involved in this large-scale sell-off include MARA, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer. These companies collectively reduced their BTC holdings, reflecting further deterioration in mining conditions since the beginning of the year.

The scale of this sell-off is comparable to that of Q2 2022, when, influenced by the Terra-Luna collapse, public miners sold approximately 20k BTC.

This sell-off contrasts sharply with the accumulation trend seen in 2024, when miners increased their reserves by about 17,593 BTC by the end of the year, pushing total holdings above 100k BTC.

The shift in this sell-off trend coincides with sustained pressure on mining profitability. Hash price (a metric measuring revenue per unit of computing power) has fallen to around $30 per PH/s, a historic low.

At this level, profit margins are severely squeezed, especially for miners using outdated equipment or facing high electricity costs, making it increasingly difficult to hold onto mined Bitcoin.

Additionally, declining profitability is driven by two structural factors: first, the rapid expansion of global mining capacity following China's mining ban in 2021; second, the Bitcoin block reward halving in 2024. Meanwhile, network mining difficulty has risen to ten times the level of 2021, further intensifying competition among miners.

Although Bitcoin's price has retreated from the all-time high of $126k, the increase in network difficulty has offset most of the revenue gains. To lock in profits and hedge against further price declines, mining companies are choosing to sell large amounts of their Bitcoin holdings.

At the same time, operational costs continue to rise, including electricity, equipment maintenance, and upgrades, while market price volatility further compresses mining profit margins. To sustain operations and maintain cash flow, miners are compelled to sell Bitcoin to raise funds.

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