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Bitcoin’s mining difficulty jumped about 15% to 144.4 trillion on Feb. 20, according to CoinWarz data, reversing an 11% drop earlier this month that marked the sharpest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban.
The earlier decline followed a sharp drop in hash rate after severe winter storms swept across much of the United States, disrupting power grids and forcing miners offline. In late January, Foundry USA, the largest mining pool by hash rate, briefly saw its computing power fall to about 198 exahashes per second from nearly 400 EH/s, before recovering.
Hash rate measures the total computing power securing the network, while mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, about every two weeks, to keep block production near its 10-minute target.
As US miners restored operations after the storm, hash rate rebounded, prompting the latest upward difficulty adjustment.
While higher difficulty strengthens Bitcoin’s (BTC) network security, it also raises the computational effort required to earn block rewards, tightening margins for miners already facing cost pressures.
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US miners monetize grid curtailments during winter storm
Although January’s winter storm forced some US Bitcoin miners offline, it didn’t necessarily erase revenue. Many participate in demand response programs or hold flexible power contracts, allowing them to pause mining and sell electricity back to the grid when prices spike.
“In January, our power infrastructure highlighted the flexibility of our operating model,” said Bruce Rodgers, chairman and CEO of Bitcoin miner LM Funding America.
According to a February report, the company curtailed operations during Winter Storm Fern and redirected contracted power to the grid, generating more than a quarter of its typical quarterly energy and curtailment revenue over a single weekend.
Canaan Inc., a Singapore-based mining hardware manufacturer with US operations, also said in its January production update that its US mining activities participated in power curtailments in storm-affected regions through coordination with site partners to help balance grid demand.
Since China’s 2021 mining crackdown, the United States has become the world’s largest Bitcoin-mining hub, hosting major operations in crypto-friendly states such as Texas and Georgia.
According to data from Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the US accounts for over one-third of global Bitcoin hash rate.
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