According to CoinWarz, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by approximately 15% to 144.4 trillion on February 20. datareversing an 11% decline earlier this month that marked the sharpest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban.
The earlier decline followed a keen decline in hash rates after severe winter storms swept across much of the United States, disrupting power grids and forcing miners to work offline. In tardy January, Foundry USA, the largest mining pool by hash rate, briefly saw hash power drop to around 198 exahashes per second from almost 400 EH/s before returning to normal.
Hash rate measures the total processing power securing the network, while mining difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks, approximately every two weeks, to keep block production at the 10-minute target.
As U.S. miners resumed operations after the storm, hash rates increased, resulting in the latest upward revision in difficulty.
While the higher difficulty level strengthens the security of the Bitcoin (BTC) network, it also increases the computational effort required to earn block rewards, narrowing margins for miners already struggling with cost pressures.
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US miners cash in on grid constraints during winter storm
While the January winter storm forced some U.S. Bitcoin miners offline, it didn’t necessarily result in a loss of revenue. Many of them participate in demand response programs or have versatile power supply contracts that allow them to stop production and sell electricity back to the grid when prices spike.
“In January, our energy infrastructure highlighted the flexibility of our operating model,” said Bruce Rodgers, president and CEO of Bitcoin Miner LM Funding America.
According to February reportthe company curtailed operations during Winter Storm Fern and redirected contracted power to the grid, generating more than a quarter of typical quarterly energy revenues and curtailments in one weekend.
Canaan Inc., a Singaporean mining equipment maker with U.S. operations, also reported in its January production update that its U.S. mining operations contributed to energy supply constraints in storm-affected regions by coordinating with site partners to lend a hand balance demand on the grid.
Since China’s 2021 mining crackdown, the United States has become the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hub, with major operations in cryptocurrency-friendly states such as Texas and Georgia.
According to data from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, the United States accounts for more than one-third of Bitcoin’s global hashrate.
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