Bitcoin whale activity is picking up. Over the past week, wallet 15oD9P withdrew 1,635 BTC (about $110.7 million) from Bybit, Binance, and OKX. Separately, a newly created wallet, bc1q3a, withdrew 450 BTC (about $30.08 million) from FalconX around six hours ago.

Bitcoin treasury company Nakamoto Inc reported that it sold roughly 284 BTC during March for proceeds of about $20 million, according to its latest 10-K filing. The average sale price was approximately $70,422 per bitcoin. The company said the transactions reflect active treasury management. It also noted a sharp expansion of its bitcoin position last year, having acquired 5,342 BTC across 2025. Total cost basis was $631.39 million, with an average purchase price of about $118,171 per bitcoin.

CoinShares has released its Q1 2026 Bitcoin Mining Report, warning that miner economics deteriorated sharply after a steep BTC pullback and continued hash rate growth pushed hash price to multi-year lows. Key points - Profit squeeze intensifies: Q4 2025 was the toughest quarter for miners since the April 2024 halving. Bitcoin fell from about $124,500 in early October to around $86,000 by end-December (about a 31% drawdown) as network hash rate stayed near record highs. Hash price dropped below $30/PH/s/day in early 2026, a five-year low, leaving roughly 15%–20% of older machines globally cash-flow negative. - AI/HPC pivot accelerates: Publicly listed miners have announced more than $70 billion in AI/HPC deals. Equity markets are paying for the AI story, with EV/NTM sales multiples around 12.3x for firms with HPC exposure versus 5.9x for pure-play miners. The sector is splitting into data-center infrastructure providers and mining-focused operators. - Short-term hash rate pullback: Global hash rate fell about 10% from its Q4 peak amid margin compression, winter curtailments, and regulatory inspections. CoinShares still expects a rebound, forecasting global hash rate at 1.8 ZH/s by end-2026 and 2 ZH/s by end-March 2027 (about one month later than its prior forecast). - Costs and leverage diverge: AI buildouts have inflated all-in cost metrics for hybrid miners as debt, SG&A, and depreciation are spread over a shrinking BTC production base. Some hybrids have taken on large debt loads (e.g., CIFR, WULF), while low-leverage miners such as CLSK and HIVE are showing tighter financial discipline and clearer advantages on pure mining costs. - Bottom line: The industry is undergoing structural reshaping. CoinShares argues that if BTC fails to reclaim $100,000 by 2026, high-cost operators are likely to capitulate faster, while ultra-low power cost miners and firms that successfully monetize AI infrastructure could dominate future capital flows. Q4 2025: the post-halving stress test CoinShares describes Q4 2025 as the most challenging quarter since the halving. With hash rate near all-time highs, hash price compressed to the lowest level in five years. The weighted-average cash cost to mine one BTC for publicly traded miners rose to about $79,995 in Q4 2025. The report highlights three themes: - Profitability under pressure: Hash price fell to about $36–38/PH/s/day in Q4, close to breakeven for many operators. Three consecutive difficulty reductions—the first such streak since July 2022—are interpreted as a sign of miner capitulation. Early in Q1 2026, hash price slid further to around $29/PH/s/day. - AI/HPC divergence: The gap is widening between pure miners and operators repositioning as AI data-center providers. WULF, CORZ, CIFR, and HUT are increasingly behaving like data-center companies that also mine. - Balance-sheet reset: Several miners have raised substantial debt to finance AI infrastructure. IREN holds $3.7 billion in convertible notes; WULF reports $5.7 billion in total debt; CIFR issued $1.7 billion in senior secured notes. AI competes with mining for rack space CoinShares notes that AI is increasingly displacing mining in data centers, potentially pushing Bitcoin mining toward more intermittent and cheaper power over time. Based on company disclosures, listed miners could generate as much as 70% of revenue from AI by year-end, versus about 30% today. The economics are driving the reallocation: hash price is near cyclical lows and fee revenue is exceptionally weak, while AI/HPC infrastructure offers higher and more stable returns. CoinShares also stresses the cost gap: mining infrastructure is roughly $700,000 to $1 million per MW, while AI infrastructure can run $8 million to $15 million per MW. Selected AI/HPC buildout updates cited in the report - CORZ (Core Scientific): ~350 MW energized, ~200 MW billed. CoreWeave contract expanded to $10.2 billion over 12 years, targeting full commissioning of 590 MW by early 2027. - WULF (TeraWulf): Lake Mariner has 39 MW of critical IT capacity online. Total contracted HPC revenue at $12.8 billion, with a five-site platform targeted at ~2.9 GW. - CIFR (Cipher Digital): Working with Fortress Credit Advisors on the 300 MW Barber Lake site; reached a multibillion-dollar Fluidstack agreement backed by Google; no revenue yet. - IREN: Expanded to more than 10,900 NVIDIA GPUs; Childress Horizon 1–4 GPU expansion (up to 200 MW) underway; AI cloud revenue was $17.3 million in Q4. - HUT (Hut 8): Signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease for 245 MW with Fluidstack at River Bend (Louisiana); first data hall targeted for early 2027. CoinShares points to the failed CORZ–CoreWeave merger vote (rejected Oct. 30, 2025) as a reminder of the gap between infrastructure value and equity value. CORZ later restated financials tied to accounting for assets slated for decommissioning during the HPC transition. Early revenue mix is shifting but mining still dominates - CORZ AI/HPC data centers: 39% of Q4 revenue - WULF HPC: 27% - IREN AI cloud: 9% - HIVE HPC: 5% Global hash rate: milestone, then a pullback The Bitcoin network exceeded 1 ZH/s for the first time in late August 2025 and peaked near 1,160 EH/s in early October. In Q4, global hash rate fell about 10% to roughly 1,045 EH/s by end-December, dipped to 850 EH/s in early February, then recovered. CoinShares attributes the pullback to: - Older S19-era rigs slipping below breakeven as BTC fell; for example, the S19 XP breakeven power price dropped from about $0.12/kWh (Dec. 2024) to about $0.077/kWh (Dec. 2025). - Higher winter power costs and ERCOT curtailments increasing unprofitable hours from November to December. - Renewed enforcement in Xinjiang in December 2025, which restricted mining activity but did not permanently relocate capacity. CoinShares estimates the network still added roughly 300 EH/s across 2025. At the time of writing, total hash rate was around 1,020 EH/s. The report argues the decline is far less severe than the 2021 China ban and is driven more by cyclical and weather-related factors. Geographic distribution The U.S., China, and Russia together control about 68% of global hash rate. The U.S. share rose about 2 percentage points quarter-over-quarter. Paraguay, Ethiopia, and Oman moved into the top ten, supported by projects such as HIVE's 300 MW build in Paraguay and BTDR's 40 MW in Ethiopia. Hash price: new lows into 2026 Hash price peaked near $63/PH/s/day in July 2025 and slid through Q4. By November it was around $35–37/PH/s/day, then briefly rebounded to $38–40 at year-end before falling again to about $28–30/PH/s/day by early March 2026. Drivers cited: - Record difficulty, peaking at 155.97T after a 6.31% increase on Oct. 29 - BTC down roughly 31% from October's high - Extremely low fee income, consistently below 1% of the total block reward, averaging about 0.018 BTC per block CoinShares says that at a $30/PH/day hash price, any rig weaker than an S19 XP paying $0.06/kWh or more is losing money, implying 15%–20% of the active fleet is at risk. BTC sales accelerate among public miners The report describes widespread miner selling. Public miners' aggregate BTC holdings are down by more than 15,000 BTC from their peak. Examples: - Core Scientific sold about 1,900 BTC (around $175 million) in January and plans to liquidate nearly all remaining holdings by Q1 2026. - Bitdeer zeroed out its treasury in February. - Riot sold 1,818 BTC (about $162 million) in December 2025. CoinShares' scenario framing - For hash price to sustainably exceed $40/PH/day, CoinShares says BTC would need to rally to $100,000 by year-end and outpace ongoing hash rate growth. - If BTC remains below $80,000 and difficulty continues rising, hash price could keep falling, though equipment shutdowns could stabilize the network. - A retest of the $126,000 historical high could lift hash price to about $59/PH/s/day. Mining cost analysis: Q4 2025 highlights CoinShares emphasizes that AI/HPC development is distorting headline cost-per-BTC metrics for hybrid operators because buildout-related debt, SG&A, and depreciation are allocated across fewer mined coins. Notable observations cited: - Depreciation and amortization is the largest non-cash cost and varies widely by accounting policy. MARA's $136,000/BTC and CIFR's $88,000/BTC are flagged as outliers. - Stock-based compensation remains a major differentiator. HUT's $48,500/BTC and CORZ's $35,500/BTC stand out. - Interest expense is increasingly material for several miners. WULF ($145,000/BTC), CIFR ($56,000/BTC), and BTDR ($16,000/BTC) are highlighted, while HIVE ($320/BTC) and CLSK ($830/BTC) are described as very low leverage. Company snapshots (selected figures as cited) - MARA: Q4 production 2,011 BTC; total cost $153,040/BTC; cash cost $103,605/BTC; energized hashrate 53.2 EH/s; disclosed policy shift in its March 2, 2026 10-K authorizing sales from its full 53,822 BTC reserve; LTV on its $350 million Bitcoin-backed facility rose to about 87% as BTC neared $68,000; acquired a 64% stake in Exaion for $174.5 million (Feb. 2026) and announced a Starwood Capital partnership in AI/HPC. - IREN: Q4 production 1,664 BTC; total cost $140,441/BTC; cash cost $58,462/BTC; power cost $34,325/BTC; $3.7 billion in convertibles (2029–2033) with coupons 2.75%–3.50%; AI cloud revenue $17.3 million (9% of total) and up to 200 MW liquid-cooled GPU build at Childress Horizon 1–4. - CLSK: produced 1,821 BTC; total cost $118,932/BTC; cash cost $71,188/BTC; interest expense $830/BTC; fleet efficiency about 16 W/T; exploring supplier diversification away from Bitmain; fiscal year ends Sept. 30 (figures are FY2026 Q1). - RIOT: produced 1,324 BTC; total cost $170,366/BTC; cash cost $102,538/BTC; Q4 ERCOT credits $9.9 million; held 17,722 BTC at Dec. 31; developing 1 GW Corsicana site with 600 MW allocated for AI. - CORZ: produced 421 BTC; total cost $168,693/BTC; cash cost $110,282/BTC; hosting revenue $31.3 million (39% of total); highlighted restatement of 2024–2025 financials, auditor change to KPMG, and determination of ineffective internal controls. - WULF: produced 262 BTC; average cost $471,841/BTC; cash cost $384,517/BTC; Q4 HPC leasing revenue $9.7 million (27% of Q4 revenue); total debt $5.7 billion; contracted capacity 522 MW under $12.8 billion in long-term agreements. - CIFR: produced 591 BTC; total cost $231,980/BTC; cash cost $103,516/BTC; issued $1.733 billion in 7.125% senior secured notes (Nov. 2025); renamed Cipher Digital Inc. on Feb. 20, 2026; Barber Lake 300 MW site planned with Fortress and Fluidstack agreement supported by Google; no HPC revenue yet. - HUT: produced 719 BTC; total cost $160,402/BTC; cash cost $50,332/BTC; SBC $48,527/BTC driven by one-time CEO/CSO awards; holds 15,679 BTC (about $1.37 billion); signed 15-year $7 billion, 245 MW deal with Fluidstack in Louisiana. - BTDR: produced 1,673 BTC; total cost $118,188/BTC; cash cost $87,144/BTC; interest expense $16,306/BTC tied to about $1 billion convertibles and related-party borrowings; highlights SEALMINER A2 at 16.5 W/TH and upcoming A3 at 9.7 W/TH. - HIVE: produced 884 BTC; total cost $144,321/BTC; cash cost $75,274/BTC; interest expense $320/BTC; debt $13.8 million; expanded in Paraguay with 100 MW Valenzuela online and 300 MW ANDE PPAs; notes contingent VAT liability of about $79.2 million tied to Swedish Tax Agency assessment under appeal. Valuation and positioning CoinShares says the AI/HPC premium widened in Q4: operators with HPC contracts trade at EV/NTM sales of 12.3x versus 5.9x for pure miners. The BTC price decline also reduced the value of miners' treasury holdings. Short interest remains elevated, with MARA around 30% of shares outstanding at the time of writing. Looking into 2026 CoinShares flags six themes: 1) Hash price recovery depends on BTC price; around $70,000 and $30/PH/day leaves many mid-generation fleets at breakeven. 2) Next-gen hardware: Bitmain S23 and SEALMINER A3 (below 10 J/TH) expected to scale in H1 2026. 3) AI/HPC revenue inflection: investors will watch whether contracted revenues convert into billing and whether margins exceed 85%. 4) Leverage divergence may drive M&A; healthier balance sheets (e.g., HIVE, CLSK) could become acquirers, though CLSK also raised $1.15 billion of 0% convertibles for AI infrastructure. 5) Regulatory and geographic shifts: U.S. share rising; Xinjiang enforcement may push migration; Texas SB 6 (signed June 2025) requires large ERCOT-connected mining/data-center loads to support remote shutdown. 6) Consolidation: efficiency gaps (about 15 W/T leaders versus above about 25 W/T laggards) could make buying efficient capacity cheaper than retrofitting older sites. Methodology note (as described by CoinShares) All-in cost per BTC allocates electricity (net of curtailment credits), SG&A (excluding SBC), D&A, net interest, income tax, and SBC to self-mining using the ratio of self-mining revenue to total revenue. Cash cost excludes D&A. Asset impairments and non-operating items such as BTC fair-value changes and derivative marks are excluded.

American Bitcoin (ABTC), a Trump family-backed company, said its Bitcoin reserves have climbed above 7,000 BTC, CoinDesk reported. Since its Nasdaq listing in September 2025, ABTC's BTC position has expanded by about three times. The company added that satoshis per share have risen to more than 660, more than doubling over the period, making ABTC the world's 16th-largest public company Bitcoin holder.

Grant Cardone's Cardone Capital has started accepting Bitcoin and launched Fund 29, a new vehicle designed to pair real estate holdings with $BTC exposure. The firm says the fund targets tax benefits and investor cash flow.

Square, the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, has started automatically activating Bitcoin payment acceptance for millions of merchants in the United States, CoinDesk reported, citing ChainCatcher. At checkout, Bitcoin payments are converted immediately into U.S. dollars, allowing merchants to accept BTC without additional setup while avoiding crypto price volatility and custody-related risks. Square said the rollout offers near-instant settlement and will waive processing fees through 2026. The company described the move as a meaningful step toward bringing Bitcoin into everyday commerce, with merchants continuing to receive dollars by default and keeping existing accounting practices intact without holding crypto assets. Square's merchant base is reported to be 78% in the U.S. and 22% in international markets. Separately, PayPal previously expanded distribution of its U.S. dollar stablecoin, PYUSD, to tens of thousands of users across its 70 global markets, supporting broader adoption of digital payments.

American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, has lifted its holdings to more than 7,000 BTC, valued at over $467 million at the time of writing based on a BTC price of $66,754. After previously adding 416 BTC, the firm now ranks as the world's 16th-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury. The latest total represents 186.53% growth from the 2,443 BTC it disclosed when it went public in September 2025. American Bitcoin uses a two-pronged approach to build its reserves: mining and direct purchases. With roughly $360 million invested, the company's average cost basis is $51,428 per Bitcoin, implying an unrealized gain of $15,040 per BTC. Eric Trump highlighted the milestone in a March 30, 2026 post, noting the company had reached the 7,000+ BTC level in under seven months since its Nasdaq debut. American Bitcoin is among a group of publicly traded firms increasing BTC exposure despite market consolidation below $70,000. Strategy bought more than 23,000 BTC this month before pausing its 13-week buying streak. 21 Capital and Metaplanet have also been accumulating, largely through purchases made in 2025. Empery Digital has continued to pursue Bitcoin investments as well, recently raising $1.3 billion for that purpose. In contrast, miners including MARA Holdings, Bitdeer Technologies, and Cipher Digital have sold Bitcoin to fund shifts toward AI and more traditional investment instruments. Tesla has kept its 11,509 BTC position unchanged for several quarters, with no recent buying or selling. The divergence reflects different views on near-term versus long-term profitability. Market reaction was muted. American Bitcoin shares (Nasdaq: ABTC) closed at $0.79, down 8.14% on the day and nearly 88% below its post-IPO price of $14.52, according to MarketWatch. The company posted a $153.2 million loss in 2025, widening from a $21.3 million loss a year earlier, despite a 159% year-over-year increase in revenue.

Michael Saylor's Strategy appears to have paused an aggressive 13-week Bitcoin accumulation run. The streak began in late 2025, during which $MSTR bought 90,831 BTC, valued at more than $6 billion at the time of writing. Source: CoinDesk

Nakamoto Inc., the bitcoin treasury company founded by David Bailey, reported in its 10-K filing that it sold 284 BTC in March for approximately $20 million. The average sale price was $70,422 per bitcoin.