Wu Says April Mining News: Listed mining companies sold over 32k BTC in Q1, Bhutan reduced Bitcoin holdings by 70%, Litecoin fork controversy, and more

Author | Wu Says Blockchain

1、

Publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies sold more than 32k BTC in Q1 2026, surpassing the total for all of 2025 and setting a new quarterly high. This includes companies such as MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, Bitdeer, and others. Data shows the current hashprice is about $33 per PH/s per day, below the breakeven level of around $35. About 20% of mining companies are in the loss range. Miners’ sell-off is mainly driven by rising hashrates, reduced block rewards, and macroeconomic conditions, while the total amount of BTC held by miners has fallen from about 1.86 million BTC to approximately 1.80 million BTC since 2023. (Cointelegraph)

2、

According to the Hashrate Index report, global Bitcoin hashrate fell to about 1,004 EH/s in Q2 2026, down approximately 5.8% from Q1. The decline is mainly attributed to a roughly 50% drop in Bitcoin’s price from the 2025 peak and mining revenues falling to historic lows, forcing some older mining rigs to shut down. Hashrate remains highly concentrated: the United States (37.4%), Russia (16.9%), and China (12.0%) together account for about 65%. Meanwhile, emerging markets such as Kyrgyzstan and Paraguay are growing against the trend, supported by low-cost energy and new equipment. The core driver of changes in hashrate is still profitability, not policy or energy factors.

3、

According to Cloverpool data, today Bitcoin mining difficulty underwent an adjustment at block height 943,488, increasing by 3.87% to 138.97 T. Currently, the network’s average hashrate over the past seven days is 987.01 EH/s.

4、

According to FinanceFeeds, as the Bitcoin network develops, debates over cryptocurrency energy consumption are intensifying. The data shows that in 2025 Bitcoin’s annual energy consumption reached 173 TWh, comparable to countries such as Poland. However, its renewable energy usage rate rose from 37.6% in 2022 to 54% in 2025. In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed imposing a carbon tax on crypto miners, which is expected to generate $5 billion in revenue per year. Moreover, if the crypto industry cannot make substantial progress on energy sustainability, it may lose institutional funding that emphasizes ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards.

5、

According to the Hashrate Index report, Paraguay has become the world’s fourth-largest mining country thanks to the structural hydropower surplus from the Itaipu dam. Brazil, meanwhile, has risen rapidly due to the opening of electricity markets. In contrast, Bolivia relies on natural gas subsidies, Argentina is affected by operator withdrawals and macro volatility, while Venezuela and El Salvador remain in the “potential” stage. Over the next 12–18 months, Brazil’s power reforms, Argentina’s energy regulations, Venezuela’s OFAC license, and geothermal development in El Salvador will determine whether Latin America can truly unlock mining growth potential.

6、

Canaan Technology disclosed that in March 2026 it mined 89 BTC. Its balance sheet holds 1,808 BTC and 3,952 ETH of crypto assets, reaching a historical high. In the same period, its installed global power capacity increased to 266.3MW, with more than 10MW of newly deployed capacity.

7、

According to the latest weekly report published by miner Bitdeer (data as of April 24), the platform produced 185.7 BTC this week and has sold all of it. Currently, Bitdeer’s net increase in BTC this week is 0. After excluding customer deposits, its own pure BTC holdings remain at 0.

8、

Bitdeer released its March 2026 operating data: in that month, its self-mining production was 661 BTC, up approximately 480% year over year. Its self-mining hashrate is about 69.5 EH/s, and its total managed hashrate is about 78.1 EH/s. Its AI cloud business annualized revenue run rate (ARR) is about $43 million, up approximately 105% quarter-over-quarter. The company is also advancing AI data center deployment, negotiating leasing talks with potential clients for the Tydal project in Norway, and releasing the SEALMINER A4 miner (energy efficiency about 9.45 J/T).

9、

Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) today officially launched its new generation of self-developed miners—the SEALMINER A4 series. The series includes three models: the A4 Pro air-cooled version, the A4 Pro liquid-cooled version, and the flagship A4 Ultra liquid-cooled version. Among them, the A4 Ultra liquid-cooled version has energy efficiency as low as 9.45 J/TH. Both the A4 Pro air-cooled and A4 Pro liquid-cooled versions achieve energy efficiency of 10.9 J/TH.

10、

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner BitFuFu released its March operating data. During the month, it produced 214 BTC and sold 80 BTC as part of its balance sheet management. By the end of March, the company’s Bitcoin holdings fell to 1,794 BTC, worth approximately $131 million at current prices. In operations, its total hashrate slightly declined to 25.9 EH/s, and its power capacity decreased to 457 MW, mainly due to the ongoing decommissioning of older miners and upgrades to higher-efficiency equipment.

11、

Nasdaq-listed miner CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) released its March 2026 operating data. It produced 658 BTC that month. In treasury management, in March the company sold 405 BTC via spot sales. An additional 500 BTC was sold through call option exercises, bringing total sales to 905 BTC. At the same time, it added 445 BTC via options and basis trading. As of the end of March, the company held 13,561 BTC.

12、

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms released its unaudited Q1 2026 production and operating update. In the quarter, it sold 3,778 BTC, generating net proceeds of approximately $289.5 million. By the end of Q1, the company’s total Bitcoin holdings had decreased to 15,680 BTC. Earlier market analysis said Riot’s recent Bitcoin sales could further intensify the sell-off wave among listed miners. Recently, multiple listed mining companies have cumulatively sold more than 15,000 BTC to balance operational and investment needs.

13、

Bitcoin miner Riot has amended its $200 million Bitcoin collateral credit agreement with Coinbase in order to reduce risks from short-term Bitcoin price volatility. The core changes to the new agreement include: switching the loan interest rate from floating to fixed; allowing a one-year credit extension; and introducing a “two-day rule,” meaning that the value of the pledged BTC must fall below a threshold for two consecutive days before triggering more stringent additional-collateral requirements. In addition, Riot sold 3,778 BTC in Q1 this year (about $289 million) and increased the quantity of restricted BTC pledged as collateral to 5,802 BTC. (The Energy Mag)

14、

Nasdaq-listed miner BGIN BLOCKCHAIN LIMITED announced it has reached a settlement with relevant parties. All 5,325 mining rigs that had been seized in the past due to a hosting-service provider default by its U.S. subsidiary have been fully recovered. This batch of equipment was originally hosted and operated by Krypton, but was seized by Mawson after Krypton fell behind on rent payments to the landlord. After litigation and settlement, the company completed the full recovery.

15、

Tether announced it is developing a new generation of modular Bitcoin mining infrastructure with partners including Canaan. It will separate the hashrate modules from the power and cooling systems, aiming to improve energy efficiency and support on-demand upgrades. The solution supports immersion cooling and allows operators to replace individual components rather than replacing the entire machine. Previously, Tether had released the open-source mining framework MDK, providing unified management and optimization tools. Pushing the hardware layer this time indicates it is accelerating efforts to build a full-stack mining infrastructure ecosystem.

16、

Tether released the open-source mining infrastructure framework Mining Development Kit (MDK), providing unified full-stack development and management tools that support miners’ centralized control of equipment, data, and operations. The framework uses a modular architecture, enabling it to run across different scales and hardware environments. It supports automation and AI optimization, with the goal of reducing vendor lock-in and improving the scalability and interoperability of mining systems.

17、

Tether Investments proposed to help Twenty-One Capital (XXI) optimize its structure through a series of merger transactions, including merging with Bitcoin financial services company Strike and further integrating with Bitcoin miner Elektron Energy. If the transactions are completed, the merged entity will combine a financial services platform, global distribution and compliance infrastructure, and large-scale mining capacity and hashrate resources, forming a comprehensive platform covering Bitcoin reserves, mining, and financial services. The plan also calls for Raphael Zagury, founder of Elektron, to serve as president.

18、

AI company Anthropic announced it has reached a multi-gigawatt next-generation TPU compute infrastructure agreement with Google and Broadcom. Reports indicate that soaring AI compute demand is competing with Bitcoin mining for scarce resources such as cheap electricity and data centers. Faced with rising operating costs and fluctuating mining revenues, several major Bitcoin miners, including Core Scientific and Iris Energy, are increasingly shifting toward AI workload hosting businesses to obtain more stable cash flow. (CoinDesk)

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On April 14, Bitcoin miner TeraWulf increased the size of its common stock offering from $800 million to $900 million. It will issue 47.4 million shares at $19 per share to build a data center campus in Kentucky and repay bridge loans. The transaction is expected to be completed on April 16. As a result, the stock fell about 6% in pre-market trading to $19.70. In addition, the company released preliminary results, estimating Q1 revenue of $30 million to $35 million and adjusted EBITDA up to $3 million. As of March 31, it held $3.1 billion in cash and equivalents, with total debt of $5.8 billion. (The Block)

20、

Nasdaq-listed company AVAX One Technology (Nasdaq: AVX) announced it has signed a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) plan. It plans to develop a 10MW AI/HPC microgrid data center at the 4–31 Battery site in Alberta, Canada. AVAX One also announced that it has acquired 220 Bitmain Antminer S21 Pro (234 TH/s) miners. It expects this will increase its total hashrate in Alberta by about 33%, from about 150 PH to 200+ PH. The related investment is stated to be below $500k, and it will be used to generate short-term mining revenue before construction of the AI/HPC facilities.

21、

Data center developer Soluna Holdings (NASDAQ: SLNH), which provides support for Bitcoin mining, generative AI, and high-performance computing applications, announced that it has completed its acquisition of the 150 MW Briscoe wind farm in West Texas, for a total price of $53 million. The transaction was completed through cash on the balance sheet and $12.5 million of debt financing from Generate Capital.

22、

Nasdaq-listed company BTC Digital Ltd. announced it has signed a joint development and operations agreement with Canadian Aurora Energy Ltd. The plan is to build 5–10MW off-grid natural gas-powered compute facilities in Alberta, Canada, initially for Bitcoin mining and later potentially expanding into AI computing, data centers, and high-performance computing scenarios. The company says this move is intended to transition from a digital-asset compute operator to an energy-driven compute infrastructure platform.

23、

According to Bloomberg, Alcoa Corp., the U.S. aluminum company, is nearing an agreement with Bitcoin miner New York Digital Investment Group to sell its Massena East shut-down smelting plant assets in New York. The deal is expected to be completed by mid-year. This transaction is part of its plan to dispose of idle industrial assets. As data centers’ demand for power infrastructure rises, these industrial sites are attracting more attention.

24、

Supported by the Trump family, American Bitcoin Corp announced that it has activated 11,298 Bitcoin miners at its Drumheller facility in Alberta. This adds 3.05 EH/s of hashrate, bringing the company’s self-owned hashrate up to 28.1 EH/s, with a total number of machines of 89,242. The company’s stock price rose more than 13% that day, and increased by 49% over the past month. Eric Trump said the company will increase its Bitcoin exposure by expanding hashrate. The data shows the company holds more than 7,000 BTC, worth approximately $552 million. (Decrypt)

25、

According to Blockspace, MARA, one of the largest Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miners, has laid off about 15% of its employees, affecting multiple departments and some contract personnel. The company said the move is part of a strategic adjustment, aimed at transforming from a pure mining company into an energy and digital infrastructure company. Affected employees will receive about one month of paid leave and 13 weeks of severance pay. In 2025, MARA recorded a net loss of approximately $1.3 billion, and it also sold more than 15,000 BTC to repay convertible debt.

26、

According to Lookonchain monitoring, about 3 hours ago, Bitcoin miner MARA transferred out another 250 BTC, worth about $17.37 million. Previously, data showed that between March 4 and March 25, MARA sold 15,133 BTC at an average price of about $72,689 (about $1.1 billion).

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MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel announced at the Bitcoin Conference the establishment of the MARA Foundation, as an initiative to support the development of the Bitcoin network beyond its mining business. Key areas include promoting open-source technology R&D, improving the transaction fee market to support “security budgets,” conducting security research against quantum computing, expanding the use of self-custody tools, and promoting multi-language education and policy advocacy.

28、

According to Lookonchain monitoring, about 8 hours ago, Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms sold 500 BTC, worth about $34.13 million. In addition, BTC reserve company Empery Digital (formerly Volcon) transferred the remaining 1,795 BTC (about $122.5 million) to Gemini about 8 hours ago.

29、

According to Lookonchain monitoring, Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms is suspected to have sold another 500 BTC (about $34.87 million). On-chain data shows that over the past 5 days, the miner has cumulatively deposited 1,500 BTC into institutional service provider NYDIG, totaling approximately $102.3 million.

30、

According to Lookonchain monitoring, Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms transferred another 500 BTC, valued at $33.26 million.

31、

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a newly created wallet address (0x97…7a7) received 40,000 ETH from crypto broker FalconX, worth about $82.12 million. Analysts say the newly created address likely belongs to crypto miner Bitmine.

32、

According to CoinDesk, Bhutan sold 70% of its Bitcoin holdings over the past 18 months. Arkham data shows Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings have decreased from about 13,000 BTC in October 2024 to 3,954 BTC currently (about $280.6 million). In addition, Bitcoin worth $215.7 million has been transferred out this year alone. Moreover, the country’s record of inflows of mining funds over $100,000 has been in place for more than a year, suggesting that the country may have already paused its hydro-powered Bitcoin mining business.

33、

Bits media reports that Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree establishing a special economic zone called Besqala Mining Valley within the Republic of Karakalpakstan, dedicated specifically to cryptocurrency mining. Under the policy, miners in the zone will enjoy tax exemptions, with the preferential period lasting until January 1, 2035. Companies that enter will be allowed to connect to a unified energy system using renewable energy and hydrogen-based power generation. Crypto assets produced in the zone can be freely traded through both domestic and overseas platforms. At present, Uzbekistan has strict entry rules for Bitcoin mining and trading. Operations are limited to legal entities working through nationally licensed service providers, and P2P trading is prohibited.

34、

According to Global News, the Manitoba provincial government in Canada has proposed doubling electricity rates for crypto miners and data centers, and suggested giving the government the right to cut off power to mining companies at any time during peak usage periods. The rationale is that these businesses consume huge amounts of electricity and make limited contribution to the local economy. The proposal has been strongly opposed by mining operators, who say it would cause many compliant companies to go bankrupt. In recent years, multiple provinces in Canada have continued tightening mining policies. Quebec has implemented double electricity rates, while British Columbia has directly banned new mining facilities from connecting to the grid.

35、

Bitmain has launched a new generation of water-cooled miner kits, AR1901 and AR1902. Among them, AR1901 consists of one ANTRACK V2-EC2-DT paired with four ANTMINER S19 XP+ Hyd. It mainly targets distributed hashrate scenarios and plug-and-play deployment. AR1902 uses an ANTRACK V2-EC4-DTHP paired with the same miners, providing an integrated “hash + heat” solution that enables stable mining returns while delivering heat.

36、

Luxor Technology announced it is expanding its partnership with MicroBT. It has committed to purchasing $100 million worth of WhatsMiner miners from MicroBT and will expand LuxOS firmware support for this model. As part of the transaction, MicroBT has signed a letter of intent with Luxor through its investment management entity Inflection Technology Ltd.; the investment amount has not been disclosed.

37、

Quantum technology company BTQ Technologies published a latest paper stating that the short-term real threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin is not mining, but the security of elliptic curve digital signatures. The paper’s calculations show that, under Bitcoin mainnet difficulty in January 2025, if quantum computing were used for mining, it would theoretically require about 10²³ physical quantum qubits and 10²⁵ watts of power—close to stellar-level energy output—which is not feasible in both physical and economic terms.

38、

A report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute says that the latest research has significantly lowered expectations for the compute power required for quantum computers to crack Bitcoin encryption. The theoretical number of qubits required has dropped from the previously estimated 10 million to less than 500,000, and could even be reduced to 10,000 to 26,000. While quantum technology has not yet reached that level, Bitcoin developers are already actively building defenses. Among them, the testnet for the anti-quantum proposal BIP-360 launched in March this year, and the Taproot architecture (a major Bitcoin upgrade activated in 2021) has already reserved an upgrade path for anti-quantum verification. The report notes that Bitcoin’s quantum threat is not insurmountable, and the related technology reserves are being advanced steadily.

39、

SpiderPool announced it will launch the native Bitcoin-associated asset DMT-NAT (NAT). Miners can receive NAT rewards synchronously within the same block they mine BTC. The official says the mechanism requires no additional setup or cost: users only need to bind a NAT wallet address after launch to claim rewards. According to publicly available information, NAT shares the hashrate, blocks, and addresses with BTC, and produces rewards roughly every 10 minutes in sync with Bitcoin blocks.

40、

According to DL News, Irkutskenergosbyt, Russia’s state-owned power company in Irkutsk—the mining hub—said it has identified about 8,000 suspected illegal crypto mining sites, and the actual number may be even higher. To conceal abnormal electricity usage, some residents explain the sudden surge in electricity bills as “charging electric vehicles,” “heating chicken coops,” or even “drying wood to prepare for building houses.” The report also mentions that related equipment has been found hidden in places such as greenhouses, paper mills, forest brush areas, and abandoned gas stations.

41、

The Bitcoin “retail-priority” mining pool Parasite Pool successfully mined its second block (height 945,601), about 48 days after its first block. The pool was founded by ZK Shark, the creator of Ordinal Maxi Biz. It is designed specifically for home miners and uses a unique hybrid distribution model: the block miner directly receives a 1 BTC reward, while the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees are distributed proportionally to all participants via the Lightning Network. The pool charges no fees, with total hashrate of about 52 PH/s—approximately 0.005% of the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate. (CoinDesk)

42、

According to mempool data, Bitcoin block 944,306 was mined by Solo CK, an independent miner with a hashrate of about 70 TH/s. It received a total block reward of 3.128 BTC, worth roughly $222k at the time.

Based on this hashrate scale, the probability of mining a block in a single day is approximately 1/100,000, equivalent to about once every 300 years.

43、

According to @BitcoinArchive, an independent Bitcoin miner using small equipment successfully mined a full block and received a 3.139 BTC block reward, worth about $210k at current prices. Based on calculations using its current hashrate, in theory it would take an average of about 76 years to mine one—an extremely low-probability event.

44、

According to an official announcement from f2pool, on April 25, 2026, the Litecoin network experienced abnormal activity due to invalid MWEB transactions, resulting in a temporary chain split. f2pool said it detected the issue in real time and continued mining on the valid chain, which caught up after 13 blocks. Starting from block 3,095,931, f2pool mined key blocks that helped the valid chain surpass the invalid fork. The network ultimately returned to normal through a natural reorganization (reorg). f2pool thanks miners who continued providing hashrate to safeguard network security.