“Public mining companies have liquidated their BTC reserves at a pace not seen since the depths of the last crypto bear market,” analysts at TheEnergyMag concluded, recording a record sale of 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026. Moreover, the liquidation volume during this period has already exceeded net sales for the entire year of 2025 and the panic selling during the Terra-Luna collapse.

As experts note, this was caused by a collapse in mining profitability, as hashprice remains near all-time lows. Even industry leaders such as MARA, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms have entered “survival mode,” forced to sell assets to cover debts and maintain operations.

But analysts further clarified that beyond operating expenses, a key factor has been the companies’ pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This means that the current wave of selling may not be a one-off event, but rather the beginning of a large-scale transformation of the entire mining sector.