Several US-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools are scaling back operations in response to the extreme winter weather that strained the nation’s power grid.
The cuts were made after an arctic cold snap brought subzero temperatures to much of the United States.
Arctic weather causes Bitcoin hashrate to plummet
According to TheMinerMag, the two major Bitcoin mining pools serving North AmericaReduced hashrate by more than 110 exahash/second (EH/s) in late January 2026.
Foundry USA, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, has seen its hash rate plummet. It dropped from nearly 340 EH/s to around 242 EH/s late last week.
Luxor also recorded a decline, with its hashrate dropping from around 45 EH/s to 26 EH/s. Smaller declines were also observed in Antpool and Binance Pool. These numbers have since fallen further.
“Bitcoin hashrate for FoundryUSA alone has fallen by 200EH/s, or nearly 60%, since Friday due to continued cuts. Temporary block production has slowed to 12 minutes,” TheMinerMag writes.
Hashrate index data shows that Foundry still controls around 163.5 EH/s of hashing power. This accounts for approximately 22.59% of the total hashrate of the Bitcoin network. Luxor’s share is 3.01% and the hashrate drops to around 21.9 EH/s.
Bitcoin mining pool. Source: Hashrate Index
The widespread decline in hashrate coincides with a deep freeze in the Arctic that brought snow, ice, and extreme cold, leading to a sharp increase in heating demand. Power grids in several states were strained and utilities issued maintenance requests.
The winter storm left at least three people dead and hundreds of thousands of homes without power, according to the BBC. Schools and roads were closed and flights canceled across the country as “life-threatening” conditions spread from Texas to New England.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, pointed out the role Bitcoin miners can play in reducing the strain on the power grid during extreme weather events.
“It is a tragedy that more than 1 million Americans are without power due to the winter storm that is hitting the eastern United States. Some public Bitcoin miners have sufficient production capacity in or near the affected areas, and some, such as CLSK, RIOT, and BTDR, are working with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) “Confirmation of real-time suppression for this storm has not yet been obtained, but this model has already proven its value when conditions worsen,” he wrote.
The extreme winter storm in the United States caused power outages to multiple mining farms across the country. Bitcoin’s total hashrate dropped by about 30% in a short period of time, a decrease of about 260 EH/s. Approximately 1.3 million mining rigs have been shut down… pic.twitter.com/75DniLUDh8
— LeonLyuLv (@LeonLyuLv) January 26, 2026
The decline in hashrate also comes amid a continued decline in miners’ reserves. Bitcoin miner holdings fell to their lowest level since 2010 in January 2026, according to data from CryptoQuant, highlighting increasing financial pressure across the sector.
Low Bitcoin prices and rising energy costs have squeezed profit margins, pushing many miners into unprofitable territory. In response to this, some carriers are reconsidering their business models. For example, Bitfarms has begun reallocating resources towards artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Meanwhile, the broader outlook for miners remains difficult. Electricity prices reached a record value of 18.07 cents per kilowatt hour in September 2025, an increase of 10.5% from January.
BeInCrypto reported that President Trump’s administration’s emergency power bidding plan will add $15 billion to the new generation through long-term contracts backed by technology.
This plan could provide long-term relief as new capacity comes online, but the benefits will take time to materialize. In the meantime, miners must focus on affordable access to electricity and active participation in demand response to survive.