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 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 (BTC) 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.
“As energy demand surges, some mining operations reduce activity to ease pressure on regional power systems and support critical infrastructure. This flexibility is a built-in strength of Bitcoin mining. It can scale down quickly when needed and resume just as fast when conditions allow.”
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.
A 2024 report from the federal Energy Information Administration also found there were upwards of 137 crypto-mining facilities in the US.
Miners helped to stabilize the grid
Bitcoin miners help stabilize power grids through load balancing by scaling their power requirements up or down quickly. Miners can set up near wind or solar installations and ramp up to soak up surplus power and shut down when the grid tightens.
Bitcoiners, such as Daniel Batten, a Bitcoin environmental, social and governance researcher said in an X post on Monday that Bitcoin mining and demand response worked together in Texas to stabilize the grid amid the extreme weather.
Related: Foundry USA hashrate drops ~60% amid US winter storm curtailments
Winter storm affecting Bitcoin production
The storm also slowed daily Bitcoin production for some of the US’s largest miners, according to CryptoQuant’s Julio Moreno, citing data from the analytics platform.
Some of the largest miners in the US, such as Marathon Digital Holdings, dropped from mining 45 Bitcoin the day prior, down to seven, while IREN went from 18 to six.
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