In the wake of a $19 billion market rout, operators have begun moving massive volumes of Bitcoin onto exchanges, a classic signal that sell pressure is building.
Such spikes rarely happen in isolation. They usually appear when miners need liquidity to cover rising costs or hedge against price swings.
Analysts view these movements as a bearish on-chain signal, showing that miners are exiting long-term accumulation phases and preparing to sell.
According to the researcher:
“Sometimes, miners also deposit coins to use as collateral for derivatives contracts or for financing purposes. In some cases, these deposits are merely technical reallocations—i.e., transfers between wallets associated with mining entities and trading platforms for regulatory or operational reasons.”
However, they are now reacting to the opposite as shrinking margins and intensifying network difficulty drive their margin low.
Bitcoin mining difficulty, which measures how hard it is to find a new block, peaked above 150 trillion in September after seven consecutive positive adjustments.
Difficulty adjustments happen roughly every two weeks, recalibrating the puzzle to ensure blocks arrive near Bitcoin’s ten-minute target.
A rising difficulty signals that more machines compete for rewards; a decline shows weaker miners have powered down. But even a slight drop hasn’t improved profitability.
Meanwhile, transaction fees, which should help offset lower rewards, have cratered instead. So far in 2025, the average fee per block has been 0.036 BTC, the weakest since 2010.
“It is a paradox that so many bitcoin miners completely disregard transaction fees. Nobody seems to even talk about them…In just a decade, these fees will be almost your sole source of income.”
With Bitcoin’s halving in April cutting block rewards to 3.125 BTC, miners are now competing in a zero-sum environment where every extra terahash of power reduces everyone’s payout.
Many smaller operations are already underwater, particularly those running older, less efficient rigs.
However, the same MW rented to AI clients for compute-intensive workloads can yield up to $1.46 million yearly in stable, contract-based income.
Nico Smid, founder of Digital Mining Solutions, said:
“The rise of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) is transforming the global compute landscape and Bitcoin miners are feeling the impact firsthand. What started as parallel industries are now competing for the same critical resources: power, infrastructure, people, and capital.”
This pivot doesn’t mean miners are abandoning Bitcoin. Instead, they’re diversifying the same infrastructure that once secured the blockchain into a broader computing economy.
In practice, miners can remain solvent through hosting contracts while waiting for the next crypto upcycle.
The short-term read is clear that miner selling adds pressure to an already fragile market.
Historically, sustained inflows from miner wallets have preceded periods of consolidation or capitulation. But the longer-term story may prove more consequential.
If mining facilities continue morphing into hybrid AI-crypto data centers, Bitcoin’s security model, which depends on consistent hashpower incentives, could face structural change.
As profitability from pure block rewards declines, Bitcoin’s hash rate may increasingly depend on firms whose primary business is no longer mining alone.
