Bitcoin Keeps Falling as Miners Sold $1.78 Billion Worth of BTC

Alongside ETF outflows and treasury sales, publicly traded miners are also adding extra supply to the market. Their margins are under pressure as production costs sit above the Bitcoin price.

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin fell 27% this year to just below $64,000 and underperformed major traditional markets.
• Publicly traded miners sold 28,000 BTC in 2026, worth about $1.78 billion at the current price.
• The average production cost is around $74,300 per Bitcoin, putting pressure on miners and pushing some toward AI and high-performance computing.

Bitcoin is under pressure this year from more than just ETF outflows and sales by treasury companies. One often overlooked source of selling pressure comes from publicly traded miners, which together have already sold 28,000 BTC in 2026, worth about $1.78 billion (€1.5 billion) at the current price.

The biggest crypto coin is down 27% this year and slipped to just below $64,000 (€55,500). That means Bitcoin is doing worse than major traditional markets, including the S&P 500. According to the market data provided, the drop is mainly tied to net outflows from U.S. spot crypto ETFs, which together saw more than $4.4 billion (€3.8 billion) in outflows. Long-dormant holders and digital asset treasury companies, including Strategy, also sold. That fits into a broader picture where the demand side is also under pressure, as the recent mix of macro pressure and extra selling by Strategy showed.

Miners Add Extra Supply

What often gets less attention in that picture is the role of public miners. These companies validate blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain and receive newly issued BTC for doing it. At the start of the year, they collectively held 127,000 BTC, according to Blockware Intelligence. That number has now fallen to 99,000 BTC.

That means part of the stash was sold into the market at a time when buying interest was already weak. In markets where price is mostly set at the margin, even relatively steady selling can matter a lot. In its newsletter, Blockware Solutions called the early selling by public miners an overlooked factor behind Bitcoin's weak performance in 2026.

Margins Are Under Pressure

The selling is tied to worsening mining economics. According to the data provided, the average cost to produce one Bitcoin is around $74,300 (€64,400), which is higher than the current price. At the same time, mining difficulty, the computing power needed to add a new block, has fallen about 18% since its November peak.

That drop points to a longer stretch of declining hashrate and to a sector adjusting to lower margins. Some miners are therefore shifting capital and capacity toward AI and high-performance computing, a trend that has already been visible among publicly traded mining companies. For now, it's mainly a strategic move to make existing infrastructure more profitable as traditional mining brings in less.

Why This Matters

For European crypto readers, this shows that Bitcoin does not just react to ETF flows or macro news, but also to the balance sheets of players that directly bring new BTC to market. If miners keep holding fewer reserves, that could noticeably change the supply side of the crypto market. At the same time, the move into AI makes it clear that mining companies are rethinking their business model as soon as Bitcoin margins come under pressure.