BTC miners face difficulty stress, treasury selloffs and AI pivots
BTC miners are facing tighter mining economics as network difficulty rises and corporate “treasury selloffs” continue. Right after difficulty ticked up by nearly 4% to ~139T hashes, estimates put the all-in cost to mine 1 BTC at just over $83,000, while BTC was below $69,000. Even occasional block wins are not preventing financial strain.
Public miners have been selling BTC to fund balance-sheet needs and an AI/HPC pivot. Riot Platforms (RIOT) sold 3,778 BTC in Q1 2026, more than double the 1,473 BTC mined, and reduced its BTC holdings from 19,233 to 15,680. MARA also cut its treasury—selling 15,133 BTC from 53,822—to help repurchase about $1B of debt, and reportedly reduced payroll by ~15% as it shifts capacity into AI/HPC data centers (including deals such as Starwood Digital Ventures and an Exaion stake).
The pressure is spreading beyond individual firms. Bitfarms/Keel (now Keel Infrastructure) says it is no longer a “Bitcoin company” and plans a full mining wind-down by year-end, disposing of remaining BTC opportunistically. Cango (CANG) is also selling BTC and faces NYSE delisting risk while funding its AI/HPC transition.
New development in the latest update: hashrate security risk is rising. Q1 2026 saw hashrate fall 4% (first quarterly decline in six years), after the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict. U.S. policy discussions around the Mined in America Act and Russia’s regional mining bans add further friction, increasing operational and compliance costs.
For traders, BTC miner weakness plus declining hashrate can amplify downside volatility. If treasury selling persists while difficulty stays elevated, sell-pressure around BTC may remain a key near-term theme.
Bearish
Both articles converge on the same trading signal: BTC miner economics are worsening as difficulty rises, while public miners keep selling BTC treasuries to fund debt/operating needs and an AI/HPC pivot. The latest update adds a potentially more market-relevant risk factor—hashrate falling 4% in Q1 2026, the first quarterly decline in six years—raising the probability of security/volatility concerns and reinforcing the bearish “pressure from miners” narrative.
Short term, continued treasury selloffs can translate into persistent sell pressure for BTC, especially when BTC price fails to move far enough above breakeven mining costs. Falling hashrate may also tighten the market’s reaction function, increasing sensitivity to negative catalysts.
Long term, the AI pivot could reduce BTC mining exposure for some firms, and a planned wind-down for certain miners (plus job cuts) may further change supply dynamics. However, the immediate trend highlighted here is liquidity preservation and BTC reduction, which typically supports bearish positioning in BTC until difficulty/profitability stabilize and selling slows.