Bitcoin’s network hashrate, which is like the total computing power used to run the network, has fallen a lot since its October peak. Hashrate shows how much work the network can do at one time. When hashrate drops quickly, it usually means many miners are turning off their machines to save money or because weather or power problems make mining harder.
CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost explains that the hashrate dropped from about 1.133 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) to 690 exahashes per second (EH/s) in just two days. To help you understand the numbers: 1 ZH/s equals 1,000 EH/s. So the network fell from roughly 1,133 EH/s to 690 EH/s very quickly. This is a big drop and shows a lot of miners paused or stopped mining for now.
Blockchain.com, another data company, reports a 7-day moving average total hash rate of about 950 EH/s. A moving average smooths out daily changes, so this number reflects a longer view and can be slower to show big recent changes. Because it uses data from the last seven days, it’s a lagging indicator; it doesn’t capture the newest, sharp drops right away.
Severe Storm Hampers Hashrate
Experts say a severe ice storm is hitting the United States. The U.S. hosts about one-third of the world’s Bitcoin mining work. The cold weather has forced many miners, especially in Texas, to shut down mining rigs (the machines that do the work to mine new bitcoins).
The storm is causing power grid disruptions and higher electricity costs. This makes it more expensive to run machines, and it can slow down how quickly new blocks are created. Because of these problems, mining difficulty—the measure of how hard it is to solve the puzzle to add a new block—is expected to drop by around 4.5%. A lower mining difficulty means it can be easier for miners to solve puzzles, but if many miners are off, there are fewer machines actively solving puzzles, which still keeps hashpower low.
The U.S. Department of Energy has issued emergency orders that let Texas grid operators use extra backup resources during the cold snap. This kind of action helps keep the lights on but can also mean miners have to sell some of their bitcoins to cover costs while they wait for power and prices to normalize. One analyst warned that this period of stress could push some miners to sell BTC if the storm lasts longer, as they still need to pay fixed operating costs even when profits are low.
“This period of stress could even trigger some BTC selling if the storm were to persist, as miners may still need to cover fixed operating costs while waiting for conditions to normalize,” the analyst said in simpler terms.
Observers also note that falling hashrates tend to move together with the price of Bitcoin. When the price is weak, miners are less likely to keep running expensive equipment. They don’t expect prices to recover quickly until hash power comes back up. At the same time, network hashprice—the expected value of 1 TH/s of hashing power per day—is very low, about $0.039 per TH/s per day. Hashprice shows how much money miners can expect to earn per day for each unit of hashing power. When it is this low, profits are thin and miners may shut down more machines to cut losses.
A tweet from Rob Warren notes the large drop in hashrate and warns about the concentration of mining power in the Southern and Southeastern United States. The tweet also links to an image illustrating how much hash power could be sold if new technologies come in or if stations are forced offline. https://nitter.net/robertwarren/status/161… The line read: “Watching a multi-hundred exahash drop in hashrate not only shows how much of it is located in the Southern and Southeastern US, but also how much there is to be sold off should AI replace those facilities.”
Meanwhile, the original reporting notes that this drop in hashrate has kept Bitcoin from recovering this week. The price of Bitcoin briefly reached about $88,500 during the Tuesday morning Asian trading session, but it is down about 4.5% from the same time last week. The price remains inside a lower boundary of a roughly three-month sideways range, meaning it has been moving sideways with little upward movement. The overall mood remains cautious, with bearish sentiment (negative outlook) persisting among investors.
In short, the combination of a powerful ice storm, higher energy costs, and power outages in Texas—the place where some of the world’s largest mining companies operate—has led to a sharp, short-term drop in mining activity. Until power and prices stabilize, the Bitcoin network is likely to stay weaker in terms of hashrate and hashprice. This is a good reminder that Bitcoin’s health depends not just on demand from buyers and sellers, but also on the many people and machines that run the network every day.
The above article about these changes is reported by CryptoPotato and explains how the hashrate drop happened as Texas miners faced outages due to the ice storm.
Glossary
- Bitcoin — Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. It uses a peer-to-peer network and a public ledger called the blockchain to record transactions. New bitcoins are created through a process called mining, which uses a system called proof-of-work to secure the network.
- Mining — Mining is the process of validating and recording transactions on a blockchain. Miners solve cryptographic puzzles to add new blocks to the chain. In proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin, mining requires powerful computer hardware and a lot of energy.
- Proof of work — A consensus method where participants show they did a certain amount of computational work to earn the right to add new blocks to the blockchain. This work helps keep the network secure and honest.
- Block time — The average time it takes to create a new block in a blockchain. For Bitcoin, a new block is usually found about every 10 minutes on average.
- Marathon Digital Holdings — An American company that runs large Bitcoin mining facilities. It is one of the big players in the mining industry.