#BTCMiningDifficultyDrop
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sees Sharpest Drop Since 2021 China Ban
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Plunges 11%, Hit by Winter Storm Fern
Bitcoin mining just took its biggest hit since the 2021 China crackdown, dropping 11.16% at block 935,424. Miners saw this coming—hashrate tanked across the last 2,016 blocks, and average block times crawled up to 12.4 minutes until the network’s automatic adjustment kicked in.
What caused the chaos? Winter Storm Fern. It pushed big U.S. miners to pull the plug across several power grids. MARA alone shut down 770 megawatts—almost 70% of its total hashrate—across ERCOT, PJM, and SPP. Grid operators worked with data centers and crypto miners to keep the lights on for everyone else.
With so many miners offline, those who stayed up enjoyed a quick 12.6% bump in mining output per terahash. But that didn’t last. The protocol expects an 11.57% jump at the next difficulty reset, so all signs point to miners coming right back online as soon as things settled down. Analysts say this looks like a short-term shock, not a sign that miners are quitting because money’s tight.
This whole episode highlights how tangled Bitcoin mining has become with energy markets and data center economics. Big miners are acting more like flexible power users, adjusting to grid needs, while their profits are still tied to BTC prices, power bills, and network fees.
There’s more going on than just crypto, too. Some on Wall Street see mining infrastructure shifting toward AI computing, especially when mining gear sits idle after a forced shutdown.
Once again, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment proves its worth—kicking in automatically to keep block production steady, even when a big storm knocks miners offline.
Key Takeaways:
- Difficulty dropped 11.16%—biggest dip since 2021.
- Winter Storm Fern forced major U.S. miners to shut down.
- Mining output per TH jumped about 12.6% (for a moment).
- Next reset expected to climb 11.57%, showing a fast miner comeback.
Sources: CryptoQuant