Winter storms in the United States increased grid load, leading to longer BTC block generation times and forcing miners to reduce mining activity.

Extreme weather conditions in the United States have led to a voluntary halt to most Bitcoin mining activities, with the hashrate of the Foundry USA mining pool alone dropping by approximately 60% since last Friday. The combined hashrate of major US mining pools has decreased by about 200 EH/s, resulting in Bitcoin block production times exceeding 12 minutes. Foundry USA's hashrate has fallen from a recent peak of nearly 328 EH/s to approximately 139 EH/s. (The Block)