Bitmain sells its machines at a loss in the face of the Bitcoin mining crisis

Bitmain, the world's leading manufacturer of mining machines, has launched a series of exceptional discounts on its equipment, including its most recent models. This decision comes in a context of strong pressure on the sector: drop in hash price, fall in bitcoin, profitability at half mast. Far from a classic commercial strategy, this operation reflects the tensions that the mining ecosystem is going through. Thus, the market leader seeks to quickly sell off its stocks.

Bitmain sells off its machines

As the mining market goes through a critical phase, Bitmain, the world leader in ASIC equipment, has launched an unprecedented commercial operation.

The company now offers massive discounts on several of its flagship machines. So even the newest models, like the immersion-cooled S21, are priced at $7 per terahash per second (TH/s).

Even more, some bundles are auctioned without a floor price, allowing buyers to propose their own price.

This pricing strategy fits into a particularly tense economic context for mining players.

Here is the key elements to remember:

• The hashprice, indicator of expected income per unit of power (TH/s/day), dropped to almost $35its lowest level in several years;

• The break-even point for many operators is estimated at $40/TH/s/day, meaning mining specialists are operating at a loss;

• The April 2024 halving reduced the block reward to 3,125 BTC, halving revenue;

• Contrary to market expectations, bitcoin did not compensate for this decline with a lasting increase in its price;

• Last October, BTC peaked at over $126,000, before dropping to $80,000 in November. It is now lower than at 1^er January 2025, showing a drop of 7%, and almost 20% compared to the January peak.

The pressure on margins is pushing the entire sector to review its priorities. In this context, Bitmain is clearly seeking to quickly sell its stocks to operators ready to take risks in an environment that is as volatile as it is uncertain.

A commercial survival strategy that redraws the rules of the market

Beyond the simple price drop, Bitmain's approach marks a break with its usual practices.

By accepting that operators “name their own price” for certain machine bundles, the company seems to abandon any traditional logic of valuation, in an attempt to quickly liquidate stocks.

This approach reflects a desire to generate cash, in a period when demand is collapsing, even for the most efficient products in the catalog. Behind this commercial offensive, we can see an industry in transition.

The sudden drop in profitability is pushing many mining companies to reduce or suspend their activities, while waiting for an improvement in the market. For some analysts, this Bitmain strategy could also foreshadow a repositioning towards other areas, such as artificial intelligence, where the company's technical skills and production capabilities could find new application. The explicit mention of the industry's difficulties shows that even the strongest players publicly recognize the scale of the crisis.

Bitmain's pullback marks a critical step for the industry. Faced with falling hash prices and pressure on costs, bitcoin mining companies are turning to green energies to save their margins. A transition that could reshape the mining economy more sustainably than market fluctuations.