Bitcoin mining stock prices slid on Thursday as bitcoin failed to clear the $70,000 following a mid-week rally.
The price of Bitcoin fell to the $67,100 range after meeting the $70,000 resistance level, which it broke below early this month in a severe market rout that delivered bitcoin its 4th worst daily loss ever.
Shares of pure-play mining operators traded lower as bitcoin’s price dropped on Thursday. In the hours after market open, Riot (NASDAQ: RIOT) was trading at -0.8%, MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) at -0.1%, and Cleanspark (NASDAQ: CLSK) at -1.6%.
Outliers to the selloff included Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT), up 2.64% after market open, and IREN (NASDAQ: IREN), which added 0.5%.
Bitcoin mining operators face severe margin compression in the current market environment. Network difficulty surged 14.7% last week, adding pressure to Bitcoin’s hashprice – a measure of mining revenue potential – at a time when bitcoin is hovering above multi-year lows.
As bitcoin’s price wanes, some bitcoin miners are selling their stashes to fund AI and HPC expansions. Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR), for example, liquidated its entire Bitcoin treasury recently, while Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR) said it would do the same over the coming year.
Cipher (NASDAQ: CIFR) shares fell 3% after market open on Thursday. During its 2025 earnings call, the company announced its rebrand to Cipher Digital as it pivots away from bitcoin mining to AI/HPC workloads.
