Since January 23, the hashrate of the largest mining pool, Foundry USA, has decreased by 60%. Data center operators across the U.S. are shutting down equipment due to severe weather conditions.
According to TheMinerMag, the pool's total hashrate has dropped by nearly 200 EH/s. Despite this decline, Foundry USA still maintains around 198 EH/s, which accounts for 22% of the global total.
Source: Hashrate Index.During peak restrictions, the interval between Bitcoin block discoveries exceeded 12 minutes. Current forecasts suggest that the next difficulty adjustment will result in a ~5% decrease in mining difficulty.
Source: CloverPool.The shutdowns were caused by winter storm "Fern." The extreme weather affected the Southeast, Northeast, and parts of the Midwest U.S. Miners are forced to reduce consumption to alleviate pressure on local power grids. This issue has also impacted other mining pools.
Mining companies act as a balancing force for the energy system. During peak demand or emergencies, they shut down operations, redirecting electricity to households and critical infrastructure.
According to The Weather Channel, the storm stretched nearly 3,000 km. Due to icing and snowfall, over 1 million residents in the U.S. were left without power.
As a reminder, in February 2025, rising electricity prices in the U.S. due to falling temperatures in the southern states led to a decrease in Bitcoin mining difficulty and a drop in cryptocurrency miners' revenues.