Bitcoin Miners Face Structural Margin Squeeze as Wintermute Flags Weak Cycle, BTC Sales and AI Pivot

Bitcoin miners are facing a structural profitability test as margins compress, with trading firm Wintermute highlighting that this halving period did not deliver the roughly 2× price increase seen previously and that gross margins have fallen toward past bear-market lows. According to Wintermute's March 2025 report, mining costs are around $87,000 per BTC versus a spot price near $69,000, transaction fees remain "episodic" rather than a consistent revenue source, and public miners have sold over 15,000 BTC since last October to fund operations or new initiatives. The firm notes miners collectively hold about 1% of Bitcoin's supply, yet most have not fully used treasury tools such as derivatives or on-chain lending to generate yield on their BTC holdings, while some operators—including Marathon (MARA), Core Scientific, Hut 8, Riot, and Terawulf—are beginning to sell reserves and repurpose infrastructure toward high-performance computing and AI. Wintermute characterizes the current environment as a painful but potentially "healthy shakeup," suggesting that miners with stronger balance sheets, cheaper power and a willingness to treat BTC as a working asset rather than a passive reserve could emerge with a lasting structural edge.