Today in Crypto: Bitcoin network hashrate dropped over the weekend during a massive winter storm in the US, lawmakers delayed work on digital asset legislation due to the same severe weather, and crypto funds saw renewed outflows last week led by Bitcoin.
Bitcoin hashrate drops amid US winter storm
Bitcoin network hashrate hit a seven-month low over the weekend as a massive winter storm bombarded the United States with snow and ice, pushing miners to curtail operations to stabilize the energy grid.
American weather forecasting company AccuWeather reported on Monday that the massive winter storm affected three dozen states over the weekend, with widespread snow, ice, and power outages affecting one million energy customers.
Data from mining data tool CoinWarz shows that Bitcoin’s network hashrate began to drop on Friday, and by Sunday, it hit 663 exahashes per second (EH/s) — a more than 40% slump in hashrate across two days.
However, it has since begun to recover and is sitting around 854 EH/s as of Monday.
“Approximately 40% of global Bitcoin mining capacity has gone offline in the past 24 hours due to extreme winter weather,” said Abundant Mines, a Bitcoin miner based in Oregon.
The US contributes the largest amount of the world’s Bitcoin mining power, with Bitcoin mining data platform Hashrate Index estimating the country contributes nearly 38% of the global hashrate.
Work delayed on US market structure bill, crypto regulation amid winter storm
The US Senate Agriculture Committee and two federal financial agencies have delayed events related to digital asset regulation amid a winter storm that paralyzed many areas of the country over the weekend.
A spokesperson for Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman told Cointelegraph on Monday that the body would push a scheduled markup for its version of a crypto market structure bill to Thursday from Tuesday. The bill, called the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, is the committee’s attempt to establish clear rules for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over digital assets.
In addition to the delay in Congress, the CFTC said on Monday that a joint event on crypto oversight harmonization with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be delayed by two days, to Thursday. CFTC Chair Michael Selig and SEC Chair Paul Atkins are scheduled to discuss “harmonization between the two agencies” on digital assets.
Although neither notice explicitly mentioned the reason for the delays, they were likely due to a winter storm that hit many areas of the US over the weekend, causing power outages, icy conditions and canceled flights. Reports from Washington, D.C., described “treacherous road conditions” and a majority of schools closed.
Crypto funds see $1.7 billion outflows, biggest since November 2025
Crypto investment products reversed course last week from solid inflows to one of the largest outflow weeks on record amid persistent bearish market sentiment.
Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) saw $1.73 billion of outflows during the week, the biggest since mid-November 2025, CoinShares reported on Monday.
“Dwindling expectations for interest rate cuts, negative price momentum and disappointment that digital assets have not participated in the debasement trade yet have likely fuelled these outflows,” said CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill.
The latest outflows highlight the market’s sideways trading, following the prior week’s $2.2 billion of inflows.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) led outflows from crypto funds last week, with withdrawals of about $1.09 billion and $630 million, respectively.
While the outflows reflected broad negative sentiment across the market, some altcoins bucked the trend. XRP (XRP) and Sui (SUI) saw outflows of $18.2 million and $6 million, while Solana (SOL) recorded inflows of $17.1 million.
Chainlink (LINK) funds also saw minor inflows at $3.8 million, according to CoinShares data.
Short-Bitcoin ETPs saw $500,000 inflows, contradicting the negative market sentiment. “Regardless, it indicates sentiment has still not improved since Oct. 10, 2025 price crash,” CoinShares’ Butterfill noted.
