Mining companies set a record by selling approximately 32k BTC, as ETFs and institutional funds continue to absorb liquidity

In the first quarter of 2026, the Bitcoin market experienced a rare divergence in supply and demand structures. On one side, North American listed mining companies collectively sold over 32,000 Bitcoins, setting the highest quarterly sell-off record on record, surpassing the scale seen during the Terra-Luna collapse in 2022; on the other side, Bitcoin spot ETFs achieved net inflows for the third consecutive week, attracting nearly $1 billion in a single week, reaching the highest level since mid-January 2026. Miners are selling, institutions are buying—two core market forces moving in completely opposite directions during the same period and with the same asset.

A Simultaneous Directional Divergence

According to Miner Weekly’s weekly report data, in Q1 2026, listed Bitcoin mining companies sold a total of over 32,000 BTC. This scale of sell-off not only exceeded the net sales of all four quarters of 2025 combined but also broke industry records—far surpassing the previous peak of approximately 20,000 BTC sold by public miners after the Terra-Luna crash in Q2 2022. Major operators involved in this large-scale sell-off include MARA, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer.

During the same period of collective liquidation by miners, Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced strong capital inflows. According to SoSoValue data, from April 13 to 17, 2026, the US Bitcoin spot ETF recorded a net inflow of $996 million, the highest weekly inflow since mid-January 2026, marking the third consecutive week of net inflows. Among them, BlackRock’s IBIT saw a weekly net inflow of $906 million, accounting for over 90% of the total weekly net inflow.

As of April 22, 2026, Gate’s market data shows Bitcoin’s latest price at $77,539.1, up 2.52% in the past 24 hours, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.49 trillion and a market share of 56.37%.

From Hoarding to Selling: A Reversal Path

2021 to 2022: After implementing mining bans, the global hash power landscape was reshaped, and North American listed miners experienced a period of dual expansion in both capital and hash power. At that time, acquiring hash power became the main narrative for valuation in the capital markets.

2023 to 2024: Facing the upcoming fourth halving, mining companies shifted strategies toward hoarding Bitcoin to hedge against future income reduction. By the end of 2024, listed miners had increased reserves by approximately 17,593 BTC, with total holdings exceeding 100k BTC.

From the 2024 halving to now: Bitcoin’s block reward dropped sharply from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC, while the total network hash rate once surged to a historical peak of about 1,160 EH/s at the end of 2025. The key profitability indicator, hash price (daily income per unit of hash power), was high at around $63/PH/s/day in July 2025 but fell to a historic low of about $28–30/PH/s/day in Q1 2026. Network mining difficulty is nearly 10 times higher than in 2021.

In Q1 2026, the mining operation model experienced a fundamental inversion: mining costs approached or even exceeded the spot price of Bitcoin, and the speed at which miners shifted from “hoarding” to “selling” far exceeded market expectations.

Meanwhile, after experiencing turbulence in Q1, Bitcoin spot ETF markets saw a clear inflection point of capital inflow in mid-April. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) bought approximately 13,927 BTC worth about $1 billion from April 6 to 12, increasing its total holdings to 780,897 BTC. The two main holders—listed miners and institutional ETF investors—formed sharply contrasting operational directions on both supply and demand sides.

Scale of Sell-offs, Capital Flows, and Cost Pressures

Miner Sell-offs

In Q1 2026, among the 32,000 BTC sold by listed miners, several companies reduced their holdings during different phases of Bitcoin’s cycle to cover operational costs, debt management, and data center expansion needs. Market observations also noted some firms gradually extending into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

ETF Capital Flows

During the week of April 13–17, 2026, Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced a pronounced “weekend acceleration” in net inflows: Friday’s single-day net inflow of $664 million was the highest for the week; Tuesday and Wednesday saw inflows of $412 million and $186 million respectively; Thursday’s inflow slowed to $26 million; and Monday recorded about $291 million in net outflows. The shift from net outflows to record-breaking daily inflows within a week indicates that market sentiment was still divided early in the week, but macro expectations shifted rapidly in the latter half of the week.

At the product level, BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for over 91% of the weekly net inflow with $906 million, totaling $64.63 billion in cumulative net inflows, leading all Bitcoin spot ETFs. In Q1 2026, IBIT’s net inflow reached $8.4 billion, more than double that of any competing product during the same period.

Hashprice and Mining Cost Structural Pressures

The underlying driver of miners’ sell-offs is a straightforward financial fact—the systemic inversion between mining costs and market prices. According to CoinShares’ March 2026 mining report, the weighted average cash cost to produce one Bitcoin by listed miners in Q4 2025 had risen to approximately $79,995. Meanwhile, hash price in Q1 2026 fell to about $28–30/PH/s/day, hitting the lowest level post-halving. About 15–20% of global mining machines are operating at a loss.

Bitcoin’s total network difficulty was adjusted downward by approximately 1.13% in April 2026, from about 137.1 T to approximately 135.59 T, marking the fifth difficulty adjustment since 2026. The direct cause of difficulty reduction is a phased decline in total hash power—when computational power decreases, the system automatically adjusts difficulty downward to maintain roughly a 10-minute block time.

From a macro industry perspective, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows that miners’ total Bitcoin holdings decreased from about 1.86 million at the end of 2023 to around 1.80 million, a net reduction of about 60k BTC over two years. The shift from hoarding to active liquidation among miners is accelerating.

Divergences and Consensus in Multi-Party Battles

Three Explanatory Frameworks for Miner Sell-offs

Cost Pressure Explanation: This is the most widely accepted view among market participants and industry analysts. Mining consultancies, investment bank research departments, and on-chain data platforms generally agree that the decline in hash price to historic lows and the approach of cash costs to $80,000 are core reasons for the sell-off wave. Miners have only two choices: shut down to cut losses or sell reserves to maintain cash flow. Listed miners like MARA and Riot have chosen the latter.

AI Transition Capital Raising Explanation: CoinShares reports that listed miners have signed over $70 billion in AI/HPC contracts, and by the end of 2026, some leading miners will derive up to 70% of their revenue from AI businesses. The capital needed for this transformation mainly comes from leverage financing and Bitcoin reserve sales. This perspective emphasizes that the sell-off is a strategic move to raise capital for high-growth ventures rather than passive loss-cutting.

Industry Narrative Shift Explanation: Paul Sztorc, CEO of LayerTwo Labs, suggests that Bitcoin mining is “moving toward decline,” citing changes in multiple projects as signs of pressure: “MinerMag” has been renamed “Energy Mag,” and the “Mining Stage” at Bitcoin 2026 has been renamed “Energy Stage.” MARA, about two years ago, already downplayed direct references to Bitcoin on its website. This view holds that the industry’s overall positioning is shifting from “Bitcoin mining” toward “energy infrastructure,” with sell-offs being a symptom of this broader trend.

Institutional ETF Buying

Marginal Improvement in Macro Expectations: The capital inflows during the week of April 13 closely aligned with macroeconomic changes. The brief reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran somewhat alleviated concerns over global energy supply tightness; US March CPI data showed core CPI at 2.6% YoY, below the market expectation of 2.7%, and MoM core CPI at only 0.2%, also below expectations. Improved inflation signals marginally cooled expectations for the Federal Reserve’s tightening policies, triggering risk asset capital inflows.

Long-term Strategic Asset Allocation: During April 6–12, Strategy bought approximately 13,927 BTC worth about $1 billion, increasing its holdings by roughly 89,599 to 94,470 BTC in Q1 2026—its second-largest quarterly acquisition in history. This indicates that some large holders’ accumulation behaviors are less correlated with short-term price fluctuations and more driven by long-term asset allocation logic.

Market opinions diverge sharply on the outcome of the tug-of-war between miners’ sell-offs and institutional buying. The optimistic view sees miner sell-offs as short-term liquidity needs that lack sustainability, while ETF inflows represent structural growth of long-term allocation capital. The bearish view considers miner sell-offs as warning signals from the industry’s cost side—when production costs surpass market prices, the “intrinsic value” floor of Bitcoin is being continuously tested.

Industry Impact Analysis: Multiple Chain Reactions Under Supply-Demand Restructuring

Fundamental Changes in Miner Roles

Miners have long played two key roles in the Bitcoin ecosystem: the primary source of new coin supply and the guardians of on-chain security. This sell-off wave marks a profound shift in miner roles. From hoarding for appreciation to active liquidation, from “Bitcoin fundamentalists” to “energy infrastructure operators,” miners’ self-positioning is evolving.

This role transformation could have long-term impacts on market supply-demand dynamics. When miners no longer see Bitcoin as a strategic reserve but as operational capital that can be liquidated at any time, the “natural support” effect on prices will weaken significantly. Historically, miner capitulation often marked market bottoms—after the large-scale miner capitulation in December 2022, Bitcoin bottomed at $15,500. But what makes this sell-off unique is that a significant portion of the BTC sold by miners is not solely for maintaining mining operations; some are permanently flowing out of miners’ balance sheets into AI infrastructure investments.

Further Concentration of Institutional Holdings

The capital flow patterns in ETF markets show a pronounced Matthew effect. BlackRock’s IBIT has accumulated a total net inflow of $64.63 billion, and as of March 30, 2026, US-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs hold about 1.29 million BTC, with a total value of roughly $86.9 billion, with BlackRock IBIT alone accounting for about 60% of the category assets.

Meanwhile, Strategy’s holdings have increased to 780,897 BTC, maintaining a gap of about 10,000 BTC compared to IBIT. The combined holdings of these two major holders exceed 1.57 million BTC, roughly 7.85% of circulating supply. The further concentration of institutional holdings implies that the influence of a few large market participants on prices continues to grow.

AI Power Transition Reshaping Mining Landscape

The systemic shift of mining toward AI infrastructure may be the most long-term impactful variable in this sell-off wave. Industry analysis indicates that the AI inference service market is expected to grow from about $106 billion in 2025 to approximately $255 billion by 2030. AI data centers offer long-term contracts of 10–15 years, investment-grade clients, and stable, predictable USD cash flows—completely decoupled from coin prices. Capital markets have responded: Morgan Stanley upgraded miners like Core Scientific and TeraWulf, which successfully integrated AI models, to “overweight,” while miners overly dependent on coin prices have been downgraded.

As more miners shift their electricity capacity from Bitcoin mining to AI compute hosting, the overall hash power structure of Bitcoin will change accordingly. This could trigger two chain reactions: first, hash power concentrates among a few ultra-cheap electricity-powered pure mining firms; second, network security at the hash power distribution level reaches a new balance.

Conclusion

The record-breaking sell-off by miners and the continuous ETF buy-in in Q1 2026 are landmark events in the evolution of Bitcoin’s supply-demand structure. The miners’ sell-offs reveal a deep structural transformation within the industry—driven by historic lows in hash price, rising mining costs, and the valuation allure of AI infrastructure—three forces fundamentally altering asset allocation logic among miners. Meanwhile, ETF capital inflows indicate that, under macroeconomic improvements and diversified asset allocation, traditional financial markets’ acceptance of Bitcoin continues to grow.

A simplified narrative currently circulating is that miner selling equals bearishness and institutional buying equals bullishness. The reality is far more complex. Some miner sales are rational decisions for balance sheet management—MARA reducing leverage via convertible bond buybacks, Riot cashing out at relatively high levels. Institutional buying is also not monolithic—funds are highly concentrated in specific products, and ETF inflows are closely tied to macro variables.

The polarization of supply and demand is in a dynamic evolution. Whether miner sell-offs are nearing an end, whether inflows can be sustained, and how AI transformation will reshape the mining landscape—these questions will jointly determine Bitcoin’s next phase. Investors need to understand the underlying logic and continuously monitor key data indicators to find structural judgment points amid the ongoing tug-of-war between supply and demand.