#创作者冲榜

Mining Hashrate Plummets, Miners Sell Off -- Are Even the Most Steadfast Believers Leaving the Market?

For a long time, miners have been marked as the most steadfast believers and long-term bulls of Bitcoin, and apart from just paying water and electricity bills, the "mine only, never sell" model has become an unwritten rule in the industry. However, since 2026, Bitcoin's global network hashrate has shown a clear downward trend. Public data shows that Bitcoin's global hashrate has dropped significantly from its peak of approximately 1.1 ZH/s in October 2025, falling to approximately 977 EH/s by January 2026, a decline of nearly 15%. Entering February, the hashrate further declined, with the 7-day average hashrate dropping below 1 ZH/s to approximately 993 EH/s.

🔍The decline in hashrate is not accidental but the result of multiple factors working together.
✅First, the sharp increase in mining difficulty has compressed miners' survival space. On February 19, 2026, Bitcoin network difficulty surged from 125.86 T to 144.39 T, with a single increase of 14.72%, the largest single adjustment since May 2021. The surge in difficulty means mining companies need to invest more hashrate and electricity costs to maintain their original output share.
✅Second, the collapse of hashprice (computational price) has made miner profitability increasingly difficult. Hit by both network difficulty surges and coin price fluctuations, global Hashprice has collapsed to less than $30/PH/s/day, approaching historical lows. Under these circumstances, the vast majority of miners using outdated equipment or with electricity costs higher than $0.06/kWh are on the verge of shutdown profitability, and even facing negative gross margins.
The decline in hashrate has also triggered a series of chain reactions. To adapt to the reduction in hashrate, Bitcoin mining difficulty was forced to decrease. In February 2026, Bitcoin mining difficulty was adjusted down 11.16% to 125.86 T, the largest single negative adjustment since China's mining operation cleanup in July 2021.

What appears even more terrifying is what follows. Under the dual pressure of declining hashrate and difficult profitability, the phenomenon of miners selling off Bitcoin has become increasingly common, becoming a focus of market attention. According to Checkonchain's difficulty regression model, as of March 13, 2026, the average production cost of Bitcoin is approximately $88,000, while Bitcoin's current price at that time was approximately $69,200, with a gap of nearly $19,000, meaning the average miner loses approximately 21% for every Bitcoin mined. The severe inversion between cost and selling price has forced miners to maintain operations by selling off Bitcoin.

Looking at specific data, the intensity of miner selling off is not to be underestimated. In January 2026, Riot Platforms sold 1,080 Bitcoin, raising approximately $96 million, used to acquire the Rockdale site and develop an AI computing power data center project. In February, Bitfarms sold its Paso Peñas mining farm for $30 million and plans to rebrand to accelerate its transformation into a digital infrastructure service provider. The liquidation behavior of Bitdeer pushed miner sell-offs to a climax, with the company completely liquidating its 1,132.9 held Bitcoin in February 2026, becoming the first publicly listed mining company to announce "zero Bitcoin holdings." Bitdeer founder Wu Jihan responded to this by saying "current positions being zero does not mean the future will remain unchanged," hinting that the liquidation is a phased strategic adjustment.

❓❓So what has driven miners' concentrated exit?

First, cost pressure is the most direct factor. With increases in mining difficulty and electricity costs, miners' production costs continue to rise, while Bitcoin prices have not kept pace, resulting in profit margins being extremely compressed. To cover electricity fees, equipment depreciation and other operational costs, miners have had to sell off their Bitcoin holdings. Second, debt pressure is also an important reason for miner sell-offs. Many mining companies massively expanded through debt during the industry's prosperous period, and when the industry downturn arrived, the pressure of debt maturity forced them to sell off Bitcoin to repay debts. Additionally, the need for strategic transformation has also prompted some miners to sell Bitcoin. Some mining companies have seen broad prospects in AI computing services and decided to shift funds from Bitcoin mining to AI computing infrastructure construction, thus needing to sell Bitcoin to raise transformation capital.

As for the controversial Bitdeer, as mining difficulty continues to increase and coin prices fluctuate, mining companies' profit margins have been extremely squeezed. AI computing services, meanwhile, are showing robust development, becoming a new profit growth point. Bitdeer's mining business itself controls large-scale computing resources, and shifting some computing power from crypto mining to AI computing services provides natural advantages. Reports suggest Bitdeer plans to focus the funds raised on data center expansion, AI cloud service growth, and R&D of high-performance mining hardware. For example, Bitdeer recently launched the Sealminer A2 mining rig and received investment from Tether, further confirming its diversification intentions.

For the Bitcoin market, the transformation of mining companies may in the short term increase market selling pressure, but from a medium to long-term perspective, it does not necessarily constitute sustained bearish factors. On one hand, the scale of mining company sales is relatively limited compared to Bitcoin's daily trading depth of tens of billions of dollars; on the other hand, the exit of inefficient miners will optimize the market supply structure, which is beneficial for Bitcoin price stability.

📊In summary, the decline in Bitcoin mining hashrate, miners' sell-off behavior, and the Bitdeer liquidation event all signal that the Bitcoin mining industry is undergoing a profound transformation. In the future, the Bitcoin mining industry will gradually evolve from a model purely dependent on Bitcoin mining to one of computing power resource management. The Bitdeer liquidation event is a microcosm of mining companies seeking transformation. In an avalanche, no snowflake is innocent. When bear markets arrive, retail investors feel the pressure, but the burden on the big players is not light either. Shutdown and sell-offs may be "amputation for survival," while transformation is about living better. Trying every possible means to survive is the only choice now, waiting for the bull market to return. I believe the industry will once again flourish.

That day will surely come.#BTC #ETH