Live markets: Bitcoin and precious metals remain under pressure
Bitcoin and precious metals remain under pressure as ~20% of miners are now unprofitable, with publicly traded miners already selling 32,000+ BTC in Q1 alone — more than all of 2024 combined. Forced BTC liquidation at scale creates persistent overhead supply and squeezes miners with negative net margins further into a cash-burn spiral.
Bitcoin miner economics are deteriorating fast: roughly 20% of the mining network is now below breakeven, and publicly traded miners dumped over 32,000 BTC in Q1 to cover operating costs — a volume that exceeded all of the prior year's sales in a single quarter. MARA, RIOT, and CLSK all reported deeply negative net margins (-144.6%, -102.5%, and a curious +46.1% net for CLSK despite negative EPS), with MARA and RIOT burning through equity at an alarming rate even as revenues grew 38–102% YoY.
The setup is a forced-selling feedback loop: as BTC price stays pressured, miners sell more coin to fund operations, which adds supply overhead, which keeps price capped, which pushes more miners underwater. Watch for BTC holding or failing a key cost-of-production floor (~$45-55k range estimated), next monthly miner treasury disclosures, and whether any names move to dilutive equity raises rather than BTC sales — the latter would signal balance sheet stress crossing a threshold.
With miners force-selling BTC at a record pace and MARA/RIOT posting deeply negative net margins, the question is whether the sector's revenue growth can outrun its cash-burn spiral or whether the feedback loop accelerates further deterioration.
Forced BTC selling at record pace (32k BTC in Q1 alone) creates persistent price ceiling on the asset miners depend on for revenue, while MARA (-144.6% net margin) and RIOT (-102.5% net margin) are deep in cash-burn territory with no visible earnings inflection. Revenue growth (38-102% YoY) is real but meaningless while gross economics are underwater — a classic miner squeeze where cost curves haven't adjusted to post-halving reality. CLSK's anomalous +46% net margin vs. negative EPS warrants skepticism and may reflect non-cash or one-time items.
A sharp BTC price recovery driven by ETF inflows or macro risk-on would immediately improve miner unit economics and reverse the short; any M&A rumor or strategic BTC treasury announcement (à la MicroStrategy copycats) could spike individual names 20%+ in a session.
CoverageSource: CoinDesk · Published here FRI, JUN 19 · 1:04 AM ET · the only report in this recordHow this is decided →
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All three names delivered double-digit revenue growth (CLSK +102% YoY), and if BTC stabilizes above the network's average cost of production, the forced-selling pressure dissipates rapidly and leveraged miners historically snap back 3-5x faster than BTC itself.
MARA and RIOT are burning equity at -144% and -102% net margins respectively while the industry just set a single-quarter BTC liquidation record, suggesting the balance sheet runway is shortening and a dilutive equity raise — which historically crushes miner stocks 15-30% — may be the next forced move.
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