US Bitcoin Miners Slow as Winter Storm Hits Power Grids

In brief

• U.S.-based Bitcoin mining pools reduced activity during a major winter storm.
• Foundry USA’s hashrate dropped from about 260 EH/s to near 124 EH/s before rebounding.
• The slowdown reflects grid curtailments and demand-response practices during extreme weather, Decrypt was told.

Bitcoin mining activity in the United States slowed during a winter storm this week as operators curtailed power use or faced grid disruptions, pushing network block times higher and briefly reducing overall hashrate The slowdown appeared most visible among U.S.-based mining pools, as extreme weather strained electricity systems across several regions, according to public network data on Mining Pool Stats. The most pronounced storm-related impact appeared at Foundry USA and Luxor, both of which have significant exposure to U.S.-based mining operations and grid conditions.

Foundry’s hashrate fell sharply from about 260 EH/s on January 24 to roughly 124 EH/s the following day, before recovering to around 134 EH/s by Monday, a pattern consistent with large-scale curtailments. Luxor, meanwhile, showed a proportional decline, dropping from roughly 40 EH/s to about 16 EH/s by Monday. Other major pools also recorded declines, though with more mixed geographic exposure. Antpool, which has U.S. operations through a joint venture with Applied Digital, fell from around 165 EH/s to about 137 EH/s at press time. Crypto mining industry purveyor TheMinerMag was first to report on the matter. “Part of the business model” In Bitcoin, mining refers to the process of running specialized computers that secure its network and add new blocks, with hashrate measuring the amount of computing power actively at work. During extreme weather, miners might reduce or shut down operations when electricity becomes scarce or expensive, or when grid operators ask large users to curtail power to maintain system stability. The storm had been identified as a major winter weather system sweeping across large parts of the central and eastern United States, bringing prolonged subfreezing temperatures, snow, and ice that strained power grids and forced utilities to curtail large industrial loads.

“Weather events, power pricing, maintenance cycles, and localized grid conditions regularly cause temporary fluctuations, which are absorbed by Bitcoin’s global distribution and difficulty adjustment mechanism,” Fakhul Miah, managing director at infrastructure developer GoMining Institutional, told Decrypt. More broadly, those slowdowns indicate a shift in the Bitcoin mining industry. The adjustments show these mechanisms “are becoming a normal part of mining operations, as Bitcoin mining increasingly functions as a flexible load that can adjust to the needs of modern power grids,” Miah added. The Bitcoin network appears to be “doing what it’s supposed to do under stress,” Callan Sarre, co-founder and chief product officer at Bitcoin infrastructure firm Threshold Labs, told Decrypt.  “Concentrated U.S. hashrate came offline, block intervals widened temporarily, and then the system began reverting toward its baseline,” he explained. These slowdowns are “a side‑effect of miners acting as a flexible, dispatchable load for the grid,” he said. This is evident in markets like Texas, Sarre said, noting how curtailment during extreme weather appears to have become a “part of the business model,” such that miners “ramp down when residential demand spikes, earn demand‑response revenue, and then ramp back up once the grid stabilizes, all while Bitcoin’s consensus layer remains intact.”