TLDR:

Public miners sold over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, breaking the previous record set during the 2022 Terra-Luna collapse..

Hashprice sits near $33/PH/s/day, below the ~$35 breakeven, leaving roughly 20% of miners operating at a loss.

American Bitcoin holds 7,000+ BTC with $25/PH/s production costs, choosing accumulation over selling amid the downturn.

New West Data pays under $0.02/kWh using flared gas power, keeping older mining hardware profitable at current hashprice levels.

Public bitcoin miners have unloaded over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, setting a new quarterly record. This figure already surpasses total net sales for all of 2025.

Major operators including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer contributed to the tally. Hashprice currently sits around $33 per PH/s per day, below the estimated $35 breakeven.

Roughly 20% of miners are now operating at a loss amid rising network difficulty and reduced block rewards.

Record Liquidations Reflect Deepening Mining Pressures

The Q1 2026 sell-off exceeds even the roughly 20,000 BTC liquidated during Q2 2022. That quarter saw market turmoil triggered by the Terra-Luna collapse.

The scale of current selling marks a sharp reversal from just over a year ago. Miners ended 2024 with a net addition of 17,593 BTC, pushing combined reserves above 100,000 BTC.

Network difficulty today stands approximately ten times higher than it did in 2021. Block rewards were also cut in half following the 2024 halving event.

Bitcoin’s price remains above its previous cycle peak despite retreating from all-time highs above $120,000. Even so, compressed margins are forcing many operators to liquidate holdings to fund daily operations.

For many miners, selling bitcoin remains the fastest way to shore up balance sheets. Meeting debt obligations in a selective financing environment has become a pressing priority.

Hashprice hovering near all-time lows leaves little room for operators with older, less efficient fleets. Those paying higher electricity costs face the sharpest margin compression.

Total BTC holdings across miners have slipped from roughly 1.86 million in 2023 to around 1.8 million today. The trend points to sustained selling pressure rather than a one-time event.

Aggressive hashrate expansion following China’s 2021 mining ban laid the groundwork for today’s difficult economics. The industry is now absorbing the consequences of that rapid, unchecked growth.

Diverging Strategies Emerge Across the Mining Sector

Not all miners are responding to the downturn by selling. American Bitcoin, the proprietary mining arm of Hut 8, has been actively accumulating.

The company held more than 7,000 BTC as of early April, up from zero a year earlier. Its all-in cash production cost was around $55,000 per bitcoin in Q4 2025, or roughly $25 per PH/s.

Meanwhile, operators with ultra-low power costs maintain a structural edge. New West Data, a Canadian firm mining with flared natural gas, pays below $0.02 per kilowatt-hour for power.

That cost level keeps even older hardware profitable at current hashprice levels. The company tripled its compute capacity in 2025 and plans to do so again this year.

Software optimization is also gaining traction as an alternative to hardware upgrades. Luxor recently launched Commander, a fleet management tool that adjusts power settings every five minutes.

The platform reportedly delivers 8% to 14% profitability gains over traditional curtailment methods. It currently manages about 5 EH/s of customer hashrate since its recent launch.

The broader industry is no longer operating as a uniform block. Power economics, balance sheet strength, and operational sophistication now separate survivors from those under strain.

What was once a scale-driven business is fragmenting into distinct strategic camps. That divergence is likely to grow more pronounced as hashprice pressure continues through 2026.

The post Bitcoin Miners Sell Record 32K BTC in Q1 2026 as Hashprice Pressure Mounts appeared first on Blockonomi.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ April 17, 2026 6:26 am