The Bitcoin hash rate has dropped by 38% as the holiday season kicked into full gear. However, some US-based crypto miners have suspended operations as the country battles with the extreme weather.
Accordingly, many states in America were cut off from power at the end of the previous week, with close to one million homes without power supply amid a biting winter.
Dropping Mining Hash Rate
Over the past few days, the Bitcoin hash rate has plummeted to about 40% between December 21 to 24, as revealed by BTC.com. The hash rate is the measure of a blockchain’s computing power.
Miner’s regular electricity demand ensures power producers have enough revenue to offset costs. In addition, Bitcoin mining can be on hold during periods of extreme electricity demand, like winter storms.
On December 23, Foundry USA, the largest crypto mining pool, recorded the largest loss among other platforms. Meanwhile, some of the biggest mining pools in the United States, like Riot Blockchain and Core Scientific, have also halted their operation.
It is worth noting that Core Scientific has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in the US as the mining firm struggles to keep up with declining revenue amid the crypto market turmoil.
The power situation is unprecedented, as reports indicate that industrial-scale mining facilities in Texas had to shut down early Saturday morning.
Despite clamoring against Bitcoin mining due to its intensive power demand, advocates stated that the industry has been critical to the continued operation of the power sector. According to Dennis Porter, an advocate of the Satoshi Action Fund, the miners’ curtailment signifies that the national electricity grid is getting the needed support from the crypto-mining industry.
Elsewhere, Denis Rusinovich, a European crypto miner, tweeted that the massive drop in computing power reflects the importance of Bitcoin’s geographical diversification.
A Winter Storm To Consider
As revealed by PowerOutage.us., the winter storm, which meteorologists described as a “bomb cyclone,” has left many homes and businesses without power. As a result, many miners had to shut down their facilities, which producers had not fed with energy during the weather storm.
The extreme weather has affected most parts of the Americas, with industry players closing operations to safeguard their workers’ lives. A statement from Core Scientific revealed that the company would engage in power curtailments because of the current weather conditions to help stabilize the electricity infrastructure.
However, the Bitcoin hash rate had slightly recovered by Sunday evening to 249.02 EH/s, which has reduced the impact on the value of the largest crypto asset. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $16,819, with a 2.4% increase over the last seven days, according to current Coingecko data.
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