Bitcoin Miners are Dumping BTC: Sell-Pressure Incoming

Public Bitcoin miners have sold more than 15,000 BTC since October 2025, roughly $1.05 billion worth, and the biggest names in the sector are signaling there's more to come. What started as forced deleveraging after a brutal margin squeeze has quietly shifted into a deliberate strategy, and on-chain data suggests the distribution isn't over.

What Triggered the Miner Sell-Off?

The unwind traces back to October 2025. A flash crash hit the market at the worst possible time for miners already operating on razor-thin margins. Post-halving economics had pushed hashprice below $30 per petahash per second for many operators, the harshest squeeze on record. Miners carrying Bitcoin-backed loans had no choice but to sell.

The names involved paint a clear picture:

• Cango sold 4,451 BTC in February, roughly 60% of its entire reserves
• Bitdeer liquidated its entire Bitcoin treasury last month
• Riot Platforms sold the equivalent of about four months of production in a single December stretch
• Core Scientific already moved 1,900 BTC in January for approximately $175 million and plans to sell a further 2,500 BTC in Q1
• CleanSpark sold 553 BTC in February for $36.6 million to pay down a BTC-backed credit line

How Is MARA Changing the Game?

The more significant development may be what MARA Holdings just did. The world's largest publicly listed miner by BTC holdings quietly updated its 2026 treasury policy to allow sales from its existing balance sheet. Previously, only newly mined coins could be sold. MARA can now sell from its entire stack, not just freshly mined coins. As of December 31, 2025, it held 53,822 BTC, worth between $3.6 billion and $4.7 billion. About 28% of that is already loaned or pledged as collateral.

That's a significant line to cross. MARA spent most of 2024 and 2025 accumulating aggressively. Now the door is open to distribution at scale.

Core Scientific was even more explicit. Its 10-K filing confirms the company expects to monetize substantially all of its roughly 2,500 BTC holdings in 2026 to fund its pivot into AI and high-density colocation infrastructure. This isn't survival selling. It's capital allocation to a different business.

What Does On-Chain Data Show?

CryptoQuant's Miner Position Index rose 59% between March 1 and March 6 and hit a 7-day high of -0.64. A rising MPI signals accelerating distribution relative to the one-year average.

Miner Net Position Change peaked at -4,718 BTC per day during early February's capitulation. That eased to -837 BTC per day by March 1, but early March data shows a fresh uptick. The Miner Supply Ratio has fallen to 0.09, meaning miners' share of the total circulating BTC supply is shrinking at a notable pace.

How Much Selling Is Still Coming?

Public miner treasuries across the sector still hold somewhere between 103,950 and 116,000 BTC. MARA, Hut 8, and Riot alone had more than 14,500 BTC pledged as collateral at year-end. That collateral doesn't unwind quietly. BTC is currently trading in the $68,000 to $69,000 range, and hashprice has recovered slightly above $30 per petahash per second, but margins remain tight for most operators.

The AI pivot gives larger miners a credible exit from BTC dependency. For the market, that means a class of historically reliable hodlers is now a consistent source of supply.

• CoinTelegraph — Primary report on public miner BTC treasury unwind since October 2025
• Bitcoin Magazine — Coverage of MARA and Core Scientific treasury strategy changes
• The Miner Mag — Miner stats and holdings
• CryptoQuant — Miner Position Index
• Compass Mining — Aggregated public miner treasury and collateral figures