The US winter storm severely impacted power grids, with Bitcoin miners cooperating in rolling blackouts and shutting down on a large scale, leading to a significant drop in overall network hash rate and a noticeable slowdown in block generation times.
(Background: Wall Street investment bank Jefferies: September Bitcoin mining profitability plummeted 7%, facing the dual threats of “hash rate surge + declining coin prices”)
(Additional context: Breaking news! The US SEC classifies Bitcoin mining as a security under the Securities Act, suing miner VBit for fraud involving 95.6 million MGB)

Table of Contents

• Extreme weather impacts power grid, miners forced to implement large-scale load shedding
• Mining pool hash rate plummets, block generation times lengthen
• Automatic adjustment mechanism activates, network operation remains within normal range
• Miners become “buffers” for the power grid, energy role gains renewed attention

Recently, the United States has been hit by a severe winter storm, with extreme cold and widespread power outages affecting not only daily life but also the Bitcoin mining industry. Under the immense pressure on the power grid, many miners have cooperated with load shedding measures, temporarily pausing or reducing operations, resulting in a significant decrease in Bitcoin network hash rate and longer block times, once again raising market concerns about energy, hash rate, and blockchain network stability.

Extreme weather impacts power grid, miners forced to implement large-scale load shedding

This winter storm sweeping across multiple states brought cold temperatures, heavy snow, and ice, causing over a million households to lose power. Utility companies issued energy-saving and load reduction alerts. To help stabilize the power system, many Bitcoin farms proactively reduced electricity consumption or shut down entirely to avoid excessive load during peak demand periods.

In this context, market estimates suggest that about 200 EH/s of total network hash rate is temporarily offline, which is a primary reason for the recent decline in Bitcoin hash rate.

Mining pool hash rate plummets, block generation times lengthen

Data from mining pools show that the impact is especially pronounced in the US. Major global pools like Foundry USA saw a sharp decline from their peak, dropping by about 60%. Another major North American pool, Luxor, also experienced a significant decrease, indicating that this hash rate contraction is not isolated to a single mining operation but a collective response to overall grid stress.

With a large portion of hash rate offline, the average Bitcoin block time has exceeded the original 10-minute target, slowing transaction confirmation speeds in the short term. On-chain data shows block times once lengthened to over 12 minutes, and market expectations suggest that the next difficulty adjustment may see a substantial reduction.

Automatic adjustment mechanism activates, network operation remains within normal range

It is worth noting that the Bitcoin network has self-correcting capabilities. When hash rate deviates from normal levels for an extended period, the system adjusts difficulty to rebalance mining efficiency, ensuring blocks are produced within a reasonable timeframe.

Therefore, despite the short-term slowdown in block times, the security and basic operation of the Bitcoin network remain unaffected. As weather improves and miners come back online, hash rate is expected to recover gradually, restoring the normal pace of block generation.

Miners become “buffers” for the power grid, energy role gains renewed attention

This event also highlights a new role for Bitcoin miners within energy systems. In recent years, more large-scale mining farms have participated in demand response programs, capable of quickly reducing load during peak periods or even feeding electricity back into the grid in exchange for compensation or power credits, helping to stabilize overall supply.

Compared to the 2021 Texas winter storm, when cryptocurrency mining had not yet deeply integrated into grid dispatch, now mining farms are gradually becoming flexible electricity consumers within the power system, playing a “buffer” role during extreme weather.

Overall, the impact of the US winter storm on Bitcoin is a short-term, mechanism-driven result rather than a structural problem. As power supplies normalize and hash rate and block times stabilize, market effects are expected to gradually diminish.

However, as some miners shift toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing businesses that require more stable power, whether the mining industry can maintain highly flexible electricity usage under similar grid stress scenarios remains a topic worth ongoing attention.