Miners in the red: forced sell-off of bitcoins at the $60,000 mark
The decline in Bitcoin (BTC) price to the psychological level of $60,000 in early June triggered a new wave of forced selling by miners. On-chain analysis data indicates that mining companies are once again under severe financial pressure, forcing them to actively offload coins to cover operational expenses.
The situation in the mining sector has remained tense for several months. Since October last year, the Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped by approximately 28%. This suggests that a significant portion of participants have either shut down or reconfigured their capacity in an attempt to reduce costs. The decline in computing power has naturally led to a downward adjustment in mining difficulty—over the same period, it has fallen by about 20%.
Repetition of the February Scenario
The forced nature of miner selling is most clearly visible in their inflows to the Binance exchange. In February, when BTC first dipped below $60,000 this year, we observed a sharp spike in activity. On February 5 alone, miners sent over 24,000 BTC to the exchange. The monthly average at that time jumped from 5,000 to over 8,000 BTC.
In early June, history repeated itself almost identically. For more than four consecutive days, daily miner inflows to Binance exceeded 10,000 BTC, peaking at 12,800 BTC. The monthly average rose from 4,700 to 7,100 BTC. Thus, we see a clear pattern: every time the price touches the $60,000 zone, miners begin to massively offload their reserves.
Cost Above Market Price
The root of the problem lies in the unprofitability of mining itself. Based on my estimates, derived from analyzing data from public mining companies and energy costs, the average cost of mining one Bitcoin is currently around $76,000. At the current market price of approximately $65,000, the vast majority of miners are operating at a loss.
The volume of these forced sales is large enough to exert noticeable additional pressure on the market. The paradox is that miners, being natural sellers (they need to cover electricity and equipment bills), are forced to sell coins in a falling market, which only amplifies the downward trend.
My opinion: Until the Bitcoin price sustainably returns above $76,000, we will continue to see periodic surges in mining pressure. This creates a kind of "price ceiling" on the path to recovery. Investors should closely monitor the dynamics of the hashrate—its stabilization and the start of growth will be the first signal that the bottom for miners has been reached.