Cango Cuts 30% of Hashrate as Bitcoin Mining Costs Squeeze Margins

Cango Utilized Only 70% of Deployed Mining Capacity

Bitcoin miner Cango operated at an average hashrate of 34.55 EH/s in February 2026, roughly 30% below its total deployed capacity of 50 EH/s. The company attributed the shortfall to "downtime associated with fleet optimization and relocation."

«📢 $CANG February Computing & Energy Operations Update: In February, we produced 454.83 BTC, with deployed hashrate maintained at 50 EH/s as of month-end. Our total Bitcoin holdings now stand at 3,313.4 BTC. As we move from pure-play Bitcoin mining to global AI and…» — CANGO (@Cango_Group), original post

Specific reasons for the partial shutdown include:

• Renegotiation of hosting agreements;
• Hardware upgrades;
• Sale of some mining units;
• Relocation of operations to regions with lower electricity costs.

Cango mined 454.83 BTC during the month. Its total Bitcoin holdings stood at 3,313.4 BTC as of February 28.

Why This Matters

Cango's situation illustrates the mounting pressure on industrial-scale Bitcoin miners. After mining difficulty surged nearly 15% on February 19, hashprice plummeted from the $33–35 per PH/s per day range to below $30. A brief recovery occurred in early March as Bitcoin's price climbed above $70,000.

According to TheEnergyMag, Cango's average hashcost sits around $40 per PH/s per day — well above current hashprice levels. The company's fleet primarily consists of Bitmain Antminer S19 XP ASICs hosted at Bitmain-managed facilities. This asset-light model enabled Cango to rapidly scale to 50 EH/s without building its own data centers, but left it exposed to hosting rate fluctuations.

Data from Bitmain-affiliated mining pool Antpool shows that the S19 XP operates at a loss when electricity costs $0.08 per kWh. In early February, Cango sold 4,451 BTC on the open market — approximately 60% of its accumulated crypto reserves — and announced plans to expand into AI services.

Bitcoin Difficulty Growth Stalls

On March 5, Bitcoin's latest difficulty adjustment registered a minimal increase of just 0.45%, bringing the metric to 145.04T. This level is 7% below the all-time high of 155.97T recorded in late October 2025.

Since October 2025, Bitcoin's network hashrate (7-day moving average) has been on a sustained downward trajectory. Computational power has declined from a peak of 1.15 ZH/s to 1.02 ZH/s. A sharp drop and rapid recovery in February were caused by the aftermath of a winter storm in the United States.

Profitability Outlook and the BTC Sell-Off Trend

With difficulty essentially flat, mining profitability over the next two weeks will be determined primarily by Bitcoin's market price. The current projection for the next adjustment is a sub-1% increase.

Over the past five months, publicly traded mining companies have collectively sold more than 15,000 BTC, according to TheEnergyMag calculations. The publication's analysts expect selling pressure to intensify further. Amid declining revenues, miners are increasingly redirecting resources from crypto reserves toward AI infrastructure.