Foundry Digital continues to mine below capacity, after shutting down some of its hashrate ahead of the snowstorm expected to hit key mining locations in the USA. Miners keep producing blocks at a relatively high pace, barring unexpected conditions.
Foundry Digital has prepared for the snowstorm expected to affect some of its locations in the USA. In the past few days, the pool shut down some of its hashrate from 1.08 ZH/s down to 780 EH/s.
Winter is traditionally a slow season for miners, especially those depending on hydroelectric power. Short-term weather conditions are also affecting hashrate.
Despite the slowdown, Foundry Digital emerged as the top mining pool, surpassing even Antpool, which is the usual leader. Antpool also shut down some of its capacity, from 335 EH/s down to 141 EH/s.
As a result, overall Bitcoin mining slid to a six-month low of 742.93 EH/s. The exact contribution of pools may differ, as the entire hashrate reporting depends on methodology. The recent hashrate effect on major pools also shows how much US-based mining is key to Bitcoin’s security, as well as future data center investment decisions.
Lower hashrate leads to lower difficulty
One silver lining of slower mining is that block production may become easier, resulting in higher rewards for some pools. Difficulty slid to a three-month low after the last two recalculation periods happened during a period of slower mining.
BTC mining dropped to a six-month low as miners shut down some of their capacity, accelerating the decline as US miners prepared for a snowstorm. | Source: Coinwarz
While the change may be seasonal, lowered difficulty may alleviate the current mining distress.
Miners keep producing blocks even as the hash ribbon indicator is flashing. The slide of BTC to $86,000 extended the period of distress for miners. The mining sector is closing in on two months of mining under distress conditions, as BTC moved down from its all-time high.
Average cost to mine one BTC is now close to $75,000, serving as a price floor. However, some miners have lower costs, while new hardware may mean a more competitive advantage for newer mining farms.
Is mining the bridge to AI?
While mining starts to look non-viable under distress, mining companies are still winning. The sector leader IREN is up over 21% in 2026, rising to $45.91. Riot Platforms (RIOT) also retained some of its gains, reaching $17.28.
All BTC mining operations retain access to relatively reliable sources of energy. As a result, some miners are still viable, while others are working toward AI and other forms of compute with a higher margin.
BTC miners have been divesting some of their reserves, with 1.89M BTC left in storage. Despite this, the selling is relatively slow, while the daily reward of 450 BTC is easily absorbed by the market.
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