Bitcoin hash rate drops 10% after US winter storm

A severe winter storm in the United States has led to a significant decline in Bitcoin mining activity, sending the cryptocurrency’s hash rate down by 10%, with operators limiting electricity consumption to ease pressure on strained power grids.

Hashrate is the amount of computing power available to process the transactions necessary for the Bitcoin blockchain to function at any time. When the hash rate drops sharply, the network has less headroom to process transactions, increasing the risk of delays before the difficulty resets.

Winter Storm Fernan swept across much of the United States amid extreme cold, snow, ice and freezing rain, straining power grids and leaving more than a million residents across states without power. The decision comes from network managers who issue conservation alerts.

As a result, major Bitcoin miners had to halt operations or were forced offline, triggering one of the biggest short-term declines in U.S. hardware in recent years.

It’s snowing in America so the blockchain is a little slower.

The US snowstorm is forcing some US-based Bitcoin miners to shut down their machines… and the Bitcoin hash rate is down almost 40% for 3 days.

Be careful! pic.twitter.com/tSuhzpJbDB

-Arkham (@arkham) January 26, 2026

For example, Foundry USA, the largest bitcoin mining pool by hashrate, accounting for approximately 23% of the global mining pool, saw its computing power drop by approximately 60%, from a recent peak of nearly 328 exahashes per second to approximately 139 EH/s.

There is a need for flexible Bitcoin power

Due to the ongoing winter storm, approximately 200 EH/s have been offline on the Bitcoin network, pushing Bitcoin’s average block time above the protocol’s 10-minute target, according to Memory pool data. Average block times have drifted towards 12 minutes.

Such a significant drop reflects the growing trend of Bitcoin miners acting as flex loads and interruptions during periods of extreme weather.

As the closures were expected and temporary, the pressure on prices remained contained. For the Bitcoin network, the slowdown remains mechanical rather than structural.

Despite the sharp decline, The price of Bitcoin showed little direct response to the storm. Over the weekend, BTC price briefly fell below $86,500, extending a broader pullback that erased gains earlier in the week when prices hit $97,000.

However, Bitcoin recovered to trade above $88,000, now at $88,217 as of 2:00 AM EST.

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