[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Bitcoin mining profitability has fallen to a record low, stoking market unease over whether bitcoin can hold the $60,000 support level.

Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday that as bitcoin slid to around $62,000, on-chain activity slowed and miner revenue fell to an all-time low.

The market focus is now on miners' holdings rather than the earnings squeeze itself. Miners and mining pools still hold more than $110 billion worth of bitcoin, and prices could come under heavier pressure if weaker profitability leads to actual selling.

On the Luxor Hashrate Index, expected daily revenue per terahash per second fell to $0.28 last Tuesday. That was down from $0.39 a month earlier. Assuming electricity costs of $0.07 per kilowatt hour, the Antminer S21 XP Hydro's estimated monthly gross profit fell to $137 from $192.

Miner wallet flows also pointed to selling pressure. Glassnode data showed the 14-day average net position change for miner and mining pool addresses turned negative in early May and has remained in negative territory since. Whether to fund operating costs, reduce debt or secure money to expand artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, the structure ultimately adds to supply pressure in the market.

Concerns about concentration in the mining industry have also resurfaced. Over the past 7 days, the top 3 mining pools including Foundry USA, Antpool and F2Pool accounted for 59 percent of total hashrate. That compares with 44 percent for the top 3 pools in 2022, indicating higher concentration.

The trend is also being shaped by expanding AI infrastructure investment. Bernstein investment bank analysts pointed to access to power, rather than chips, as the key bottleneck in expanding AI data centres. Some bitcoin miners are therefore converting part of their existing power infrastructure for AI computing.

Views diverge on how to interpret bitcoin's production cost. Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards (찰스 에드워즈) put bitcoin's mining production cost, including depreciation and amortisation, at $62,650, and the absolute break-even point based on electricity costs at $50,120. By contrast, some listed mining companies are using more efficient ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) equipment and industrial power contracts to sharply cut costs.

American Bitcoin (ABTC US) said its total operating cost per 1 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 was about $36,200. The difficulty of pinpointing a single production cost across the industry is also reflected in such differences. Some operators continue mining despite losses for tax reasons.

It is therefore hard to conclude bitcoin's price floor based on weakening mining profitability alone. Capriole Investments data show bitcoin also traded below estimated production costs for more than 6 months in 2019 and 2023. Another variable is that even if high-cost miners temporarily shut down, institutional flows in the spot market are far outstripping miner supply.

Ultimately, assessments suggest whether the $60,000 level holds depends on broader market conditions than mining industry profit and loss. Whether the current price stagnation persists is likely to hinge not only on miner profitability but also on how much investors shun risk assets amid macroeconomic uncertainty.

Bitcoin is trading back at its Production cost. Miners are now just breaking even on average. The best Long-term value opportunities have historically been between here and Electrical Cost, currently at $50K. pic.twitter.com/VFo2SKUr0q