Bitcoin has slipped back toward critical support, ETF outflows are testing the conviction of institutional investors, and for the first time in years even Strategy is no longer a pure one-way buyer. Meanwhile, hashprice is grinding toward record lows just as network hashrate pushes back above 1 Zetahash, raising the question who is adding hashrate when many public miners are pivoting to AI. In the evolving mining landscape, we are witnessing the widening gap between the industry’s largest players and the rest of the field.
Bitcoin’s Third Negative Month of 2026
All Eyes on the $70,000 Level
ETF Trimming, Not Capitulating
A Crack in the Infinite Buyer Thesis
Hashprice Grinds Toward the Floor
Hashrate Returns to 1 Zetahash
Public Miners Are Unlikely Driving the Recovery – Premium Insights
A Two-Horse Race for Hashrate Leadership – Premium Insights
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Bitcoin’s Third Negative Month of 2026
With May now closed, the month booked a 3.5% loss. This is the third negative month of the year alongside January (-10.05%) and February (-14.88%). In isolation, that’s a soft print relative to the steeper drawdowns that opened the year. Historically, May has been one of Bitcoin’s more volatile months swinging from +66% in 2017 to -35% in 2021. A 3.5% drop barely registers on that distribution.
All Eyes on the $70,000 Level
Bitcoin printed a seven-week low, down more than 20% year to date. The technical picture deteriorated in May, when BTC failed to break above the 200DMA. The rejection set off a steady grind lower, and price is now sitting at the top of the prior trading range it spent months trying to escape. Without a decisive bounce from the $70,000 level, BTC slides back into that lower range and will likely impact market sentiment. But the real question is whether ETF demand, the driver for demand last year, returns.
ETF Trimming, Not Capitulating
The ETF complex has flipped from the market’s main bid to its primary source of selling. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have logged 10 consecutive sessions of net outflows totalling roughly $2.97 billion, the longest streak since the products launched. Last week alone, $1.42 billion exited U.S. spot BTC ETFs, the third-largest weekly outflow on record.
Total AUM still sits above $105 billion, nearly $20 billion above the late-March low. The asset class hasn’t been abandoned but it’s being trimmed from elevated holdings. That distinction matters for what comes next. A full capitulation in ETF holdings would require selling far beyond the current $3 billion withdrawal. What we’re seeing instead looks like measured de-risking from a base that remains structurally larger than it was two months ago.
A Crack in the Infinite Buyer Thesis
For the first time outside its 2022 tax-loss harvesting trade, Strategy sold Bitcoin. A SEC filing Monday confirmed 32 BTC sold between May 26–31 at an average $77,135. This is a $2.5 million transaction against the company’s 843,706 BTC, $61 billion position.
Numerically, the sale is irrelevant. It trims holdings by 0.004% and is earmarked for preferred stock dividend payments. Symbolically, it’s a different story. Strategy was a one-way buyer of Bitcoin for nearly five years. The narrative shift matters more than the size. If the market’s largest corporate holder is selling near cost basis to fund dividends, the “infinite buyer” thesis takes a credibility hit at exactly the moment ETF flows have removed the other side of the bid.
Hashprice Grinds Toward the Floor
Hashprice currently sits at $32.5/PH/day, down over 15% year-to-date from the $38.4/PH/day level at the start of 2026. It is now just $4 away from its all-time low of $28/PH/day and has declined nearly 49% from the October 2025 peak of $64/PH/day.
Aside from a brief period in January, hashprice has remained below $40/PH/day throughout the year. This is a sign of ongoing structural compression in mining economics. With Bitcoin’s price also softening, miners have little room to offset the pressure through higher revenue, leaving margins increasingly squeezed.
Hashrate Returns to 1 Zetahash
Bitcoin’s network hashrate has climbed back above 1 Zetahash (1,000 EH/s) for the first time in two months. While this marks a notable recovery, the network is still operating 62 EH/s below its level at the start of the year.
Whether this rebound can be sustained remains uncertain. Hashprice has continued to trend lower over the past month, reducing miner profitability and potentially limiting the incentive for additional hashrate to come online. The coming weeks will reveal whether the return above 1 Zetahash is the start of a broader recovery or merely a temporary bounce.
Network hashrate is recovering, but the traditional growth engine of the industry is changing. Discover why many public miners are pulling back while two companies continue to consolidate an ever-larger share of Bitcoin’s hashrate.
