Publicly Mining Companies Sold More BTC in Q1 2026 than All of 2025

By: crypto insight|2026/04/17 19:00:02

Key Takeaways:

Publicly traded Bitcoin miners sold over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, surpassing the total sales of 2025.
The hashprice sits at record lows, threatening profitability for many miners.
Bitcoin Miner Reserves have been declining since 2023, with miners collectively holding around 1.8 million BTC now.
Bitcoin treasury companies are capitalizing on current market dips to acquire more BTC.
The volatility in the mining industry is expected to persist unless there is a significant price recovery.

WEEX Crypto News, 2026-04-17 07:12:43

Massive BTC Sales Mark Q1 2026

Publicly listed Bitcoin mining firms unloaded more than 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026, a figure surpassing all Bitcoin sold throughout 2025. Such significant sales highlight the tightening conditions for the Bitcoin mining landscape. TheEnergyMag reported that companies like MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer are among the top sellers driving this record quarter.

The situation echoes back to the 20,000 BTC offloaded during Q2 2022 amidst the Terra-Luna collapse but has now set a fresh high for quarterly BTC sales. A critical factor in this trend is the deteriorated hashprice, a central gauge of mining profitability, languishing below $35 per petahash/second per day, approaching the painful zone of $33 PH/s.

Profit Margins Crunched by Low Hashprices

The steep drop in hashprice is driven by expanding competition and challenging macroeconomic circumstances that increase operational costs and reduce potential rewards. Many miners, particularly those utilizing older mining systems, find themselves at a breakeven point around $35 PH/s, with a notable 20% of the industry dipping into unprofitable territory.

Amidst these pressures, there’s a scramble in the mining community as firms introspect on whether to liquidate assets or gamble on the reserves for a potential upswing. The rising hashrate signals a crucial pivot point where success will bend towards those with cost-effective operations, enhanced technology, and strategic foresight.

Declining Bitcoin Miner Reserves: A Long-Term Trend

The liquidity pressures have translated into a steady decline in Bitcoin Miner Reserves since 2023. A mere reminiscence, miners collectively held 1.86 million BTC at the close of 2023, but reserves have thinned down to 1.8 million BTC currently. In the face of shrinking margins, selling remains primarily a choice driven by necessity over strategy.

“We anticipate more sell-offs among operators with steeper operational costs unless Bitcoin’s market price makes a substantial rebound,” CoinShares stated, predicting ongoing capitulation scenarios in its Q1 2026 Bitcoin Mining Report.

-- Price

The Divergent Path of Bitcoin Treasury Companies

While miners grapple with difficulties, Bitcoin treasury entities like Strategy show perseverance and strategic buying. Even as BTC prices retreat from the $73,000 highs, Strategy continues its acquisition streak capitalizing on market waves. Michael Saylor, the force behind Strategy’s BTC drive, recently insinuated further purchases, sharing a timeline that aligns BTC purchases with price retreats. “Think bigger,” he remarked, gesturing towards a long-term vision unconstrained by immediate volatility.

[Place Image: Graph of Strategy’s BTC Purchases Over Time]

With 2026 revealing the intricate dynamics of the cryptocurrency environment, the road ahead remains rugged for miners. Sweeping changes in technology, energy costs, and market behavior will continue dictating the broader vying between survival and expansion.

FAQ Section

Why did Bitcoin miners sell so much BTC in Q1 2026?

The monumental sales arose from increased operational costs, low hashprices, and heightened competition, which made selling BTC a necessity to sustain operations.

What is hashprice and why is it important for miners?

Hashprice represents the profitability ratio for mining based on computing power. It’s vital because it affects the breakeven point and profitability of mining operations.

How much BTC is currently held by miners?

Miners currently hold approximately 1.8 million BTC, a reduction from the 1.86 million BTC held at the end of 2023.

Are Bitcoin treasury companies affected by current market conditions?

Unlike miners, treasury companies like Strategy are leveraging current dips to accumulate BTC, seeing it as a strategic opportunity rather than a threat.

What future challenges are miners expected to face?

Ongoing challenges involve low profitability from reduced block rewards, high competition, and potentially sustained lower BTC prices unless market conditions change significantly.

The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.

Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.

Simplified Trading Experience: No KYC Required, Opening a Position in Five Steps

Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.

The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:

· Choose the trading asset

· Select long or short

· Input position size and leverage

· Confirm order details

· Confirm and open the position

The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.

Social-Native Trading: Strategy and Execution Completed in the Same Context

Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:

· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members

· End-to-end encrypted voice communication

· One-click position sharing

· One-click trade copying

On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.

By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.

Referral Mechanism: Non-institutional users can receive up to 60% fee split

Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:

· Users can join with an invite code

· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards

· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings

This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.

Self-Custody Architecture and Built-in Privacy Mechanism

Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:

· Separation of transaction account and asset storage

· User full control over assets

· Platform does not custody user funds

· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure

The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.

A New Path for On-Chain Derivatives

Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.

The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.

Regulatory Background

Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.

This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."

The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.

About Mixin

Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.

Its core capabilities include:

· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations

· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets

· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries

· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication

Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.

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