On February 1, 2025, a severe Arctic chill swept across southern U.S., causing a spike in energy costs. This unprecedented weather event impacted the profitability of Bitcoin mining operations in the country, resulting in the first downward adjustment of Bitcoin’s mining difficulty since September, 2024.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, which adjusts bi-weekly based on miner performance, aims to maintain a ten-minute gap between the creation of new blocks. When the network experiences a decrease in hash power, mining becomes easier as the difficulty decreases.
Over the past six months, the mining difficulty has either held steady or increased at each two-week interval, with a couple of exceptions – it dropped on September 25, 2024, after reaching a record high earlier in the month, and again on January 27, 2025.
This latest downward adjustment was triggered by the frigid temperatures that swept across several U.S. regions, as reported by Bitcoin mining company, Luxor. The cold weather increased the demand for natural gas and reduced the efficiency of renewable energy sources, pushing up electricity prices and making Bitcoin mining less profitable for U.S. firms.
Data from The Block reveals that miner revenue per terahash dropped slightly in January compared to December, indicating a more challenging environment for mining Bitcoin profitably.
According to Luxor, the U.S. commands a 36% stake in the global Bitcoin mining hashrate, with Texas contributing nearly 17%. Notably, several U.S.-based Bitcoin mining companies, including Riot Platforms which operates the largest mining firm in Rockdale, Texas, have announced plans to diversify their operations by allocating some processing power to AI and high-performance computing tasks.
Luxor’s research team anticipates Bitcoin’s mining difficulty to return to its regular pattern as the Arctic chill recedes. “The U.S.’s cold snap is a temporary disruption, and we predict improved hashrate stability as temperatures return to normal,” they noted.
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