Bitcoin: The Most Vulnerable Miners Forced to Sell More to Survive

32,000: that is the number of bitcoins the major publicly traded miners liquidated in the first quarter of 2026 alone. According to TheEnergyMag, this figure exceeds all sales in 2025. Quick breakdown: the bitcoin mining market is currently undergoing a structural rupture.

Bitcoin: Why Did Miners Sell a Record Volume of BTC in One Quarter?

The answer boils down to a single figure: $33/PH/s. This is the current level of the hashprice according to Hashrate Index, the key profitability metric in bitcoin mining.

It dropped below the critical threshold of $35/PH/s in July 2025 and hasn’t recovered since. For operators using older generation ASICs, this level represents the breakeven point: below it, every mined block costs more than it earns.

The bitcoin mining companies involved are among the largest in the sector:

• MARA;
• CleanSpark;
• Riot;
• Cango;
• Core Scientific;
• Bitdeer.

They collectively sold over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, according to TheEnergyMag. This volume surpasses the 20,000 BTC sold during the Q2 2022 bear market triggered by the Terra-Luna collapse, one of the darkest episodes for digital assets. According to TheMinerMag, this therefore represents a “new record” for a single quarter.

This wave of forced sales occurs amidst triple pressure:

• a steadily increasing global hashrate (more competitors for the same block reward);
• rising energy costs;
• a bitcoin price struggling to sustainably break $75,000.

According to CoinShares in its Q1 2026 report:

We anticipate increased capitulation among high-cost operators in H1 2026 unless BTC price recovers significantly.

Who Survives and Who Capitulates in Bitcoin Mining Today?

The sector is clearly splitting into two camps. On one side, miners selling to survive. On the other, treasury companies buying to capitalize.

Strategy, Michael Saylor’s firm, represents this second group. On April 13, 2026, Saylor shared his historical bitcoin buying chart on X with two words: “Think bigger.” For the crypto community, this signal always precedes a new acquisition.

According to CryptoQuant, the Bitcoin Miner Reserve (an indicator measuring all BTC held by miners) has been declining since 2023. It has dropped from 1.86 million BTC at the end of 2023 to about 1.8 million BTC today. Each tough quarter thus erodes reserves, shifting mined bitcoin to the market rather than the companies’ treasury.

For crypto investors exposed to the bitcoin mining sector, the question is straightforward: if the hashprice remains below $35/PH/s in Q2 2026, how many operators will be forced to shut down or merge? According to CoinShares, the answer almost entirely depends on the BTC price. So it is not just a mining crisis, but an advanced barometer of the health of digital assets more broadly.

In any case, this bitcoin news dated April 16, 2026 illustrates a structural rupture. Vulnerable miners are selling. Treasury companies are accumulating. For investors, the challenge is clear: monitor the hashprice as an advanced barometer of the bitcoin market.