What are you going to do?
It is almost not profitable to mine BTC anymore if your aim is to exchange to fiat day to day, because of the electricity cost. If you are into BTC long term then you don't have to do much except for holding on to it or to multiply it. If you are reliant to exchange to fiat, then the only thing you can do is to use the BTC to make more BTC before exchanging. One such method is to convert to alt-coin, play that market and then exchange back to BTC and then to fiat. Alt-coins are however very scammy currently but there are opportunities here and there.
Trading altcoins is pure speculation. There is no guarantee of a positive return, so it's not a viable option for most miners.
If mining gets unprofitable most miners will choose one of two possibilities: Either stop mining Bitcoin until mining is profitable again or delay the sale of Bitcoin (if a miner wants fiat). In the first case difficulty is likely to fall / rise more slowly, while in the second case no additional effect on difficulty is expected. Both cases should have a stabilizing effect on price.
The only problem is that manufacturers keep dumping BTC miners on the market at ever decreasing prices. This and a flood on Ebay. It is possible to buy a 1.6THz Cointerra IV on Ebay for $1000 which is 1/3 of 2 months back. Even the 1THs Dragon miners are becoming very cheap compared to a few months back. This makes me even more upset because the manufacturers must have ben making super profits off miners then. It cannot be so much cheaper to manufacture them now compared to 2-3 months back.
I doubt that difficulty will drop though, but it might become stable or rise slower at the point when electricity cost for running a 1100W power supply at max is equal to BTC returns for the THz produced at that Wattage. At that point new miners will probably not enter the market. If you add the opportunity cost for the electricity spend to the equation, then that point might even be reached sooner. At some point GHASH will also make a call if the Ghash they sell is profitable after maintenance cost and might pull the plug on that part of their business. Unless of course someone comes up with a solution that has a more efficient THs/W ratio. Once the above equation has been reached there is no profit and no loss and is the break-even point. In order for the situation to change, either the difficulty has to drop (unlikely as most will try to wait it out while manufacturer miner flooding will continue) or the price of BTC has to rise. The price of BTC will rise on a fundamental level if there is more demand than supply which could happen with either more acceptance and use by the general public or if less BTC are sold for fiat. The 1st is probably more likely than the 2nd because of a panic selling spiral and because miners have to sell more of what they mine to cover cost and make some kind of ROI and at break-even point all mined BTC is sold to break even and after that they withdraw. The above assumes of course that you have to pay for your electricity and imo this is the bane of POW and POW the bane of BTC.
I agree that alt-coins are pure speculation, but if you learn the market there are opportunities. It is extremely high risk but one of a few opportunities and alternatives on the road from BTC to fiat none the less to multiply BTC if it fits within your risk appetite. If someone wants guaranteed positive return then they must get out of crypto and buy government bonds.
