US Winter Storm Slashes Daily Bitcoin‑Mining Output, New Data Shows
January’s powerful cold front forced a sharp, temporary decline in production among publicly listed miners, underscoring the sector’s vulnerability to energy‑grid stress.
What the numbers reveal
Crypto‑analytics firm CryptoQuant released a set of daily production figures that track the output of the most widely held publicly traded mining firms – Core Scientific, Bitfarms, CleanSpark, Marathon Digital (MARA), Iris Energy, and Canaan, among others.
- In the three weeks before the storm, the aggregate daily haul hovered between 70 and 90 BTC.
- At the height of the weather event, that figure fell to roughly 30–40 BTC per day, a decline of more than 50 %.
- As temperatures rose and grid conditions improved, output began to climb back toward pre‑storm levels, indicating that the curtailments were largely temporary and voluntary.
Julio Moreno, CryptoQuant’s head of research, described the pattern as “a clear, weather‑driven dip that ebbed once the extreme cold and power‑grid strain abated.”
Why miners pulled back
The storm swept across a swath of the continental United States, bringing heavy snow, ice, and record lows that strained electrical networks. Several of the tracked companies, including Core Scientific, CleanSpark, Marathon, Riot Platforms, TeraWulf and Cipher Mining, operate sizable data centers in the affected regions. In response to grid stress and the risk of blackouts, these operators reduced hash‑rate or temporarily shut down rigs to avoid disconnections and to support demand‑response programs that help stabilize the grid.
The episode highlights a growing interdependence between Bitcoin mining and the broader energy market: miners are increasingly called upon to act as flexible load, while also remaining highly sensitive to wholesale electricity prices and grid reliability.
Context: a sector already under pressure
The production dip arrives amid a “harshest margin environment of all time,” a phrase coined last year by industry outlet The Miner Mag. Several factors are compressing profitability for Bitcoin miners:
| Factor | Impact |
|---|---|
| Falling BTC price | Reduces revenue per mined coin |
| Declining network hashrate | Lowers overall mining rewards |
| Rising electricity costs | Increases operating expenses, especially in regions with high wholesale rates |
| Post‑halving revenue squeeze | Cuts block reward by 50 % (May 2024) while fixed costs remain |
Analysts have warned that these pressures will intensify in 2026 as miners confront thinner margins, industry consolidation, and a pivot toward ancillary revenue streams such as artificial‑intelligence and high‑performance computing workloads.
Key takeaways
- Weather can instantly curtail hash‑rate – The January storm caused a more than 50 % drop in daily BTC production among the tracked miners, confirming how extreme weather directly translates into mining downtime.
- Mining is now an active participant in grid management – Operators voluntarily reduced load to relieve stressed power systems, reinforcing the role of miners in demand‑response schemes.
- Temporary disruptions do not mask longer‑term challenges – Even as output rebounds, the sector’s underlying profitability issues remain, driven by lower BTC prices, rising energy costs, and post‑halving reward reductions.
- Data transparency aids market understanding – Real‑time production metrics from platforms like CryptoQuant provide investors and policymakers with a clearer view of how external shocks affect the crypto‑mining ecosystem.
Outlook
If the United States experiences further extreme weather events this winter, miners may face additional, albeit short‑lived, production setbacks. Over the longer term, the episode reinforces the importance of geographic diversification, resilient energy contracts, and strategic participation in grid‑balancing programs for mining firms seeking to protect margins in an increasingly volatile market.
This story was compiled from data released by CryptoQuant and reporting from Cointelegraph’s previous coverage of the January winter storm’s impact on U.S. Bitcoin mining.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-miner-output-us-winter-storm-latest-data?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
