Bitcoin hashrate drops 12% in worst drawdown since China mining ban: CryptoQuant

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Bitcoin hashrate drops 12% in worst drawdown since China mining ban: CryptoQuant

A severe winter storm has forced US miners to curtail operations, dragging bitcoin’s hashrate, output and miner margins to their weakest levels in months.

By Shaurya Malwa

Jan 31, 2026, 8:30 p.m.

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What to know:

• Bitcoin’s total network hashrate has dropped about 12 percent since November 11, its largest decline since 2021, after severe U.S. winter storms forced major miners to shut down operations.
• Daily bitcoin mining revenue plunged from roughly $45 million to a yearly low of $28 million in just two days, while output from large public miners fell from 77 bitcoin per day to 28, underscoring the scale of the disruption.
• CryptoQuant’s Miner Profit and Loss Sustainability Index has slid to 21, its lowest level since November 2024, signaling that many miners are operating under severe financial stress despite recent difficulty reductions.

Bitcoin mining activity has taken its biggest hit since late 2021 after a severe winter storm in the United States forced several large mining firms to curtail operations, triggering a sharp drop in network hashrate, production and revenue.

Bitcoin’s total network hashrate has fallen about 12% since November 11, marking the largest drawdown since October 2021, when the network was still recovering from China’s sweeping mining ban.

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(CryptoQuant)

The hashrate now sits near 970 exahashes per second, its lowest level since September 2025, according to CryptoQuant data.

The decline accelerated this week as extreme weather disrupted power supply across key US mining hubs.

Several publicly listed miners temporarily shut down machines to protect infrastructure and comply with grid curtailment requests, amplifying an already softening trend that began as bitcoin pulled back from its $126,000 all time high toward the $100,000 level late last year.

The hashrate shock quickly fed into miner economics. Daily bitcoin mining revenue dropped from roughly $45 million on January 22 to a yearly low of $28 million just two days later. While revenue has since rebounded modestly to around $34 million, it remains well below recent averages, reflecting both lower network activity and weaker bitcoin prices.

Production figures show an equally sharp contraction. Output from the largest publicly traded miners fell from 77 bitcoin per day to just 28 bitcoin over the same period. Production from other miners declined from 403 bitcoin to 209 bitcoin, bringing total network output down sharply.

On a 30-day rolling basis, publicly listed miners recorded a 48 bitcoin decline in production, the steepest since May 2024, shortly after the last halving. Output from non public miners dropped by 215 bitcoin, the largest fall since July 2024.

Profitability has also deteriorated, further pressuring the energy-intensive business.
CryptoQuant’s Miner Profit and Loss Sustainability Index has fallen to 21, its lowest reading since November 2024. The level signals that miners are operating in deeply stressed conditions, with revenues failing to cover costs for a growing share of the network despite multiple downward difficulty adjustments over recent epochs.

(CryptoQuant)

While difficulty has eased as machines went offline, the relief has not been enough to offset falling prices and operational disruptions. If hashrate remains suppressed, the network could see further difficulty cuts in coming weeks, offering some margin relief.

For now, the data points to one of the most challenging stretches for bitcoin miners since the post China ban reset more than four years ago.