Bitcoin miners use collateral to manage treasuries as costs rise
In brief
- CleanSpark reported 1,719 BTC (12%) held as collateral or derivative receivables
- Riot Platforms holds 5,802 restricted BTC, representing 37% of Q1 holdings
- Miners' weighted-average production cost reached $79,995 per BTC in Q4 2025
- An estimated 15–20% of global mining capacity sits underwater at current hashprices
- Miners pivot toward AI revenue, potentially reaching 70% of earnings by end-2026
Treasury complexity at scale
CleanSpark reported 13,924 BTC as of June 30, with 1,719 BTC posted as collateral or recorded as a receivable tied to derivative transactions. That amounts to roughly 12% of the miner's reported Bitcoin balance held in financing or risk-management mechanisms rather than as free reserves. The nuance matters. CleanSpark owns the 11th-largest public Bitcoin treasury among operating companies, yet raw balance figures don't capture how much of that stack is actually available to move or deploy.
CleanSpark's treasury activity in June illustrates the point. The company produced 614 BTC but sold 179 BTC at spot price. It also sold 250 BTC pursuant to call exercises and acquired 25 BTC pursuant to put exercises, and acquired 244 BTC related to a delta-neutral basis trade. These moves—hedges, leverage positions, and basis trades—reshape the effective composition of a miner's holdings without changing headline numbers.
Riot Platforms shows a starker example. The company reported 15,680 BTC held at quarter-end in Q1 2026, including 5,802 restricted BTC. That restricted balance equaled roughly 37% of Riot's reported holdings. In the same period, Riot sold 3,778 BTC for $289.5 million in net proceeds, signaling pressure to convert reserves into cash.
Production costs and margin squeeze
The reason miners are turning to collateral and derivatives: production economics are tightening. CoinShares' Q1 2026 mining report stated listed miners' weighted-average cash cost to produce one BTC had risen to about $79,995 in Q4 2025. Bitcoin was near $62,000 on July 8, approximately 50% below its October 2025 all-time high. At those prices, many miners operate at a loss or razor-thin margin.
Hashprice near $30 per PH/day left an estimated 15% to 20% of the global mining fleet underwater amid higher power costs. Collateralizing BTC allows miners to access liquidity without selling into a depressed market. Derivatives—calls, puts, basis trades—let them hedge price risk or lock in forward revenue without liquidating reserves.
The AI pivot
Miners are also diversifying revenue streams away from pure Bitcoin production. CoinShares reported listed miners could derive as much as 70% of revenue from AI by the end of 2026, up from roughly 30%. This shift follows more than $70 billion of announced GPU colocation and cloud service deals with hyperscalers.
Miner treasuries are becoming harder to read as BTC stacks are marketed as strength, sold for cash, pledged, restricted, or moved through derivatives. Investors tracking miner health need to dig beyond headlines—collateral, receivables, and restricted balances tell a different story than raw BTC counts.
