TheEnergyMag forecasts heavier selling by bitcoin miners

TheEnergyMag says bitcoin miners may step up coin sales amid tighter margins.

Mining companies have been offloading coins over the past several months, and recent disclosures by major players suggest the trend may tighten, TheEnergyMag reports.

Recently, the following sold holdings:

• Riot — in December sold four times as many coins as it mined over 30 days;
• Cango — in February sold 4,451 BTC (60% of reserves);
• Bitdeer — in the same month fully sold off its bitcoin holdings (about 943.1 BTC);
• Core Scientific — said it plans to sell most of its coins by the end of the first quarter.

By TheEnergyMag’s calculations, over five months public miners have sold more than 15,000 BTC in aggregate. This selling pressure risks intensifying.

“In other words: the era of HODL is gradually ending. Miners are selling shares as they face a sharp squeeze in profits. Selling pressure should not be surprising,” the experts added.

Unfavourable position

According to an analysis of recent quarterly reports, hashprice is a key profitability metric for miners; at present it has fallen below $30 per PH/s per day.

In these conditions most public players are operating at or below break-even.

“Historically, the gap between hashprice and hashcost has been one of the strongest drivers of treasury liquidations,” TheEnergyMag noted.

Unlike previous downturns, many public miners entered 2025 with heavy debts. The industry tapped credit lines, bitcoin-backed loans and secured bonds to finance operating expenses as well as large-scale build-outs of AI and HPC data centres.

As of December 31, the three largest miners — Hut 8, MARA Holdings and Riot — had pledged more than 14,500 BTC as loan collateral, the magazine’s authors said.

“The catch is that as bitcoin’s price falls, the loan-to-value ratio rises. After the sharp plunge, collateral ratios likely increased. That means companies have already pledged additional coins to maintain lending thresholds,” the experts added.

The current rebound of the leading cryptocurrency to $74,000 has done little to ease miners’ position. They still need to sell assets to cover operating costs and to pursue AI transition plans.

In February, MARA reported a $1.7bn loss and said it intends to shift its focus to artificial intelligence.