A winter storm threatening to bring ice and heavy snow to much of the southern United States this weekend could cause Bitcoin miners to scale back operations until the front passes.
U.S. weather forecaster AccuWeather reported Thursday that a “major winter storm” could stretch 1,800 miles from far west Texas to the mid-Atlantic coast, causing power outages and disrupting travel in more than a dozen states, affecting more than 60 million people.
In the past, when major storms wreaked havoc on the power grid, Bitcoin miners turned off their power to reduce the load on the grid. When a major winter storm hit Texas in 2022, crypto miners across the state voluntarily scaled back their operations.
Daniel Batten, a Bitcoin (BTC) environmental, social, and governance researcher, told Cointelegraph that miners are likely to do it again.
“As extreme weather events become more common in jurisdictions around the world, we believe the need for load balancing for Bitcoin mining will only increase, especially as solar and wind power is introduced to the grid,” he added.
AccuWeather predicts the storm will likely affect tens of millions of people and cause power outages in multiple U.S. states. sauce: accuweather
Bitcoin miners help stabilize the power grid through load balancing by acting as a fast and controllable demand response. Miners install them near wind and solar farms, which run to absorb excess power and shut down when the grid becomes strained.
A report Tuesday from the Digital Asset Institute suggested that Bitcoin mining has saved the state of Texas about $18 billion by eliminating the need for new gas speaker plants.
Bitdeer does not expect closures due to the storm
BitDeer, a Singapore-based miner that operates more than 293,000 rigs around the world, including locations in Texas and other locations in the United States, told Cointelegraph that it does not expect any major disruption to its rigs from the storm.
“Storms usually do not directly impact our operations. We have standard operating procedures that adapt to seasonal changes, such as winterizing pipes. Our field teams are monitoring weather conditions and will respond quickly,” a Bitdia spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas considers Bitcoin miners to be a “high flexible load.” This means they can reduce their power usage on demand, unlike other industrial power users who have rigid power demands, he said.
“Bitdia stands ready to fully support the grid in the event of supply constraints,” they said.
US miners control the largest share of hashrate
Miners are the backbone of the Bitcoin network. Validate every Bitcoin transaction and record it in a new block. The more miners that participate, the higher the hashrate, which helps make the network more secure.
The United States is home to the world’s mining powerhouse, with the country estimated to control nearly 38% of the world’s hashrate, according to Bitcoin mining data platform Hashrate Index.
Some of the largest US miners include Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Platforms.
US-based miners control the largest share of global hashrate, followed by Russian and Chinese miners. sauce: hash rate index
There are many facilities in America as well. In 2024, the Federal Energy Information Administration found that there were more than 137 cryptocurrency mining facilities in the United States, with the highest concentrations in Texas, Georgia, and New York.
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