Foundry USA cut roughly 60% of its mining output from last Friday through Sunday, January 26, 2026, temporarily removing about 200 EH/s from the Bitcoin network and pushing average block times toward 12 minutes. The curtailment was framed as a demand-response move to help stabilize power grids during Winter Storm Fern.
The operational disruption translated into only a modest, short-lived market response. As of January 26, 2026, BTC was trading near $89,870 after dipping below $86,500 earlier in the week and rebounding into a $87,000–$89,000 range.
UPDATE: #Bitcoin hashrate on FoundryUSA is down by nearly 200 EH/s, or 60%, since Friday amid continued curtailment. Temporary block production slows down to 12 minutes 🫥🫥 https://t.co/e51LyWoxjs pic.twitter.com/uIrCD5JudD
— TheMinerMag (@TheMinerMag_) January 25, 2026
Operational Impact on Network Performance
Foundry reported a 60% reduction in hashrate that took nearly 200 EH/s offline, leaving the pool operating at about 198 EH/s and representing roughly 23% of global Bitcoin hashrate. That scale of concentrated withdrawal helped stretch average confirmations to around 12 minutes and highlighted how localized infrastructure stress can quickly surface as network slowdown.
The pause was described as largely strategic, with miners curtailing power to ease grid strain as the storm knocked out electricity to over a million U.S. homes. While it did not cascade into systemic failure, the episode functioned as a real-world stress test for concerns around mining concentration and geographic vulnerability.
Market Positioning and Derivatives Catalyst
Market participants largely treated the hashrate shock as operational noise rather than a pricing regime shift. BTC recovered most of its dip within the same session, suggesting traders prioritized macro context and derivatives positioning over temporary mining disruptions.
Derivatives data adds a near-term catalyst that could interact with liquidity as capacity returns. Options activity points to a January 30, 2026 expiry with max pain near $90,000, a setup that may concentrate hedging flows and amplify price moves if liquidity thins or volatility spikes.
Across the episode, the key signal was the combination of a large pool-level curtailment and a measurable but contained network slowdown. The headline metrics were consistent throughout: roughly 60% curtailment, about 200 EH/s taken offline, block times near 12 minutes, and price stability returning quickly to the $87,000–$89,000 zone with BTC near $89,870 on January 26, 2026.
The broader takeaway is that concentrated mining footprints can expose Bitcoin to localized energy and weather shocks even when markets remain composed. In the near term, traders and risk desks are likely to focus on restoration of the offline EH/s and the January 30, 2026 options expiry as the two operational checkpoints that can shape liquidity and directional conviction.
