Bitcoin’s mining difficulty rose about 15% to 144.4 trillion on Feb. 20, according to CoinWarz data, reversing an 11% decline earlier this month that had been the sharpest drop since China’s 2021 mining ban. The rebound follows a recovery in US hash rate after severe winter storms temporarily forced miners offline.
Hash rate — the total computing power securing the Bitcoin network — fell in late January as freezing temperatures disrupted power grids across parts of the United States. Foundry USA, the largest mining pool by hash rate, saw its computing power drop to around 198 exahashes per second from nearly 400 EH/s before stabilizing.
Mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to keep block production close to Bitcoin’s 10-minute target. As US miners restored operations, hash rate climbed back, triggering the latest upward adjustment.
A higher difficulty level increases the computational effort required to win block rewards. While this strengthens the network against attacks, it also raises production costs per Bitcoin mined.
That dynamic comes at a time when many miners are already operating in a tighter post-halving environment, with reduced block rewards and ongoing pressure from energy and capital costs. When difficulty rises quickly after a temporary disruption, weaker operators can face added strain.
At current levels, miners must deploy more computing power to maintain the same output. Those with access to low-cost power and efficient hardware are better placed to absorb the change, while higher-cost operations see margins compress.
Although January’s winter storms forced some facilities offline, not all lost revenue. Many large US miners participate in demand response programs or hold flexible power contracts, allowing them to curtail mining and sell electricity back to the grid during price spikes.
“In January, our power infrastructure highlighted the flexibility of our operating model,” said Bruce Rodgers, chairman and CEO of LM Funding America.
In a February report, the company said it 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 sites participated in power curtailments in storm-affected regions in coordination with site partners to help balance grid demand.
Since China’s 2021 mining crackdown, the United States has become the largest Bitcoin-mining hub globally, with major operations concentrated in states such as Texas and Georgia. Data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance shows the US now accounts for more than one-third of global Bitcoin hash rate.
That geographic concentration means US weather patterns, grid dynamics, and regulatory conditions can now influence global mining metrics more directly than in previous cycles. The recent difficulty drop and rebound illustrate how localized disruptions can ripple through network-level indicators.
With hash rate back online and difficulty at new highs, the focus turns to cost discipline and energy strategy. In a market where margins are increasingly sensitive to both price and power, operational flexibility has become as important as raw computing capacity.
