FoundryUSA Reduces Hashrate Amid Severe Winter Storm in the U.S.

FoundryUSA, a leading digital asset advisory firm with the largest Bitcoin mining pool globally, has significantly reduced its hashrate by approximately 60% since Friday due to a severe winter storm affecting vast areas of the United States. According to Cointelegraph, the Bitcoin hashrate on FoundryUSA alone has decreased by nearly 200 exahashes per second (EH/s), or 60%, since Friday, leading to a temporary slowdown in block production to 12 minutes. Despite the reduction, FoundryUSA still maintains around 198 EH/s of hashing power, representing about 23% of the global mining pool hashrate, as indicated by data from Hashrate Index. The curtailment has also impacted other mining pools serving U.S. users, including Luxor, as reported by TheMinerMag on Saturday. The winter storm, named Fern, is sweeping across the U.S., prompting miners to adjust their energy consumption to alleviate stress on grid infrastructure. Bitcoin miners play a crucial role in balancing the energy grid during emergencies. They act as a controllable load resource for public electrical grid infrastructure, modifying their energy requirements to stabilize the grid during periods of high demand and low consumer usage. Excess energy within an electrical grid system can damage infrastructure during low demand periods and must be safely dissipated to prevent harm to grid components and individuals. Bitcoin miners can activate their machines when demand is low, diverting potentially harmful levels of power from the grid. Conversely, they can deactivate their machines during peak demand to ensure energy availability for consumers. The current winter storm in the U.S. is characterized by a mix of snow, ice, and freezing rain across the Southeastern U.S., the Northeast, and parts of the Midwest, according to radar forecasts from The Weather Channel. The storm is expected to stretch approximately 1,800 miles, causing widespread power outages affecting over 1 million residents, as reported by The Weather Channel.