This year’s Labor Day, Bitcoin miners may have nothing to celebrate. On the day the world celebrates “Labor Day” on May 1st, the “labor” of the Bitcoin network—the miners—faces another grueling countdown. Because on that very same day, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is set to rise again, compounding pressure on an industry that just set a new record in the previous quarter: the largest BTC sell-off in years. 🟠 Why are miners in a worse position than during the 2022 bear market? The answer lies in a nearly two-year chain of events. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1) April 2024 – Halving Cuts Income in Half The Halving event (which reduces mining rewards by 50% every four years) instantly slashed miners’ block rewards by 50%, while their hardware and electricity costs remained unchanged. 2) 2024–2025 – Multi-Front Pressure Energy prices surged due to geopolitical tensions, network difficulty continued climbing, and newer mining rigs became significantly more efficient. Small- and mid-sized miners began being squeezed out of the market. 3) October 2025 – BTC Price Plummets from Peak Bitcoin’s price, which had reached $125,000 (approx. 4.1 million THB), began a sharp correction. By December of the same year, it had dropped to around $86,000 (approx. 2.8 million THB)—a 30% decline within just two months. 4) Q4 2025 – The Most Challenging Quarter Since Halving According to CoinShares (a leading European digital asset management firm), Q4/2025 was the most challenging quarter for BTC miners since the April 2024 Halving, with approximately 20% of miners immediately falling into unprofitability. 5) Q1 2026 – A Sell-Off Record No One Wanted to Break TheEnergyMag reported that six public mining companies—MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer—sold a combined total of over 32,000 BTC in a single quarter. This number is alarming because: 🔹 It exceeds the total BTC sold across all four quarters of 2025 combined. 🔹 It surpasses the previous record of 20,000 BTC set during the Terra-Luna collapse (Q2/2022). The reason is straightforward: when the cost to mine one BTC exceeds its market price, companies must sell reserved BTC to cover electricity and operational expenses in fiat currency (e.g., USD, THB). 6) April 19, 2026 (Today) – Slight Difficulty Drop Before the Next Storm Data from CoinWarz shows mining difficulty recently decreased by 1.1%, dropping to approximately 135.5 T—offering miners a brief respite. 7) May 1, 2026 (Labor Day) – Difficulty Set to Surge to 137.43 T The next difficulty adjustment will occur on May 1 at 13:24 UTC, rising from 135.59 T to 137.43 T—equivalent to roughly 1,865 blocks (about 12 days and 18 hours from now). This means miners must deploy significantly more computational power to earn the same amount of BTC. 🔻 Broader ImplicationsWhat’s happening isn’t just an issue for a few mining companies—it’s a sign that the industry is being squeezed down to only the lowest-cost players. Like in traditional heavy industries, when energy costs are too high and product prices too low, mid- and small-scale operators gradually disappear, leaving only large players with favorable power contracts, modern equipment, and deep capital—Bitcoin mining is following the same path, just at an accelerated pace. 💬 Community Voices on X The conversation on X about this issue is sharply divided into two camps. One side argues that the selling by public mining companies represents “permanent supply,” exerting far greater downward pressure on BTC prices than retail selling. The other side sees it differently, arguing that when weaker miners reach this point, it often signals that the market is nearing the bottom of the cycle. 🔚 Conclusion As the market watches closely to see whether BTC will break further or rebound, the difficulty adjustment on May 1st will serve as another key indicator: how long can the remaining miners hold on, and who will be the “next” to sell additional BTC reserves? What do you think? With miners selling BTC at record levels surpassing the Terra-Luna collapse—does this signal a “bottom” or the “start of a new downtrend”? Share your thoughts in the comments 👇 #BitcoinAddict #BitcoinAddictThailand #Bitcoin