Canaan sets new mining efficiency record at 17.9 J/TH in May 2026 update

Canaan Inc., the Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner and ASIC manufacturer, reported a new efficiency milestone for its North American self-mining fleet. In May 2026, fleet efficiency improved to 17.9 joules per terahash (J/TH), marking a record level and an 11% gain from a year earlier. The May result builds on recent progress. Canaan previously reported 18.7 J/TH for its North American non-JV operations in March and April 2026, implying roughly a 4% improvement in just a few months. On a global basis, average fleet efficiency reached 23.7 J/TH, up 13.5% year over year. On production, the company mined 90 BTC in May and received an additional 24 BTC from customers. Canaan said its crypto treasury rose to about 1,867 BTC and 3,952 ETH, a new high-water mark. Canaan ended the month with 10.05 EH/s of installed hashrate, while effective operating hashrate was 6.47 EH/s. The company attributed the gap to the expiration of a hosting agreement. The company also highlighted expansion tied to its partnership with Cipher Mining, through which it acquired a 49% stake in West Texas projects. Canaan said the transaction added roughly 4.4 EH/s and 120 MW of capacity to its pipeline. CEO Nangeng Zhang described the May performance as evidence of resilience in a challenging market. For investors, the difference between installed and operating hashrate stands out: with 10.05 EH/s installed and 6.47 EH/s running, about 36% of capacity was offline or underutilized at month-end. The year-over-year efficiency gains remain the central takeaway, with improvements of 11% in North America and 13.5% globally pointing to continued deployment of newer hardware that is lifting fleet-wide performance.