Bitcoin Hashpower Returns; Mining Difficulty Rises ~15%

Bitcoin’s network hashpower rebounded after widespread winter outages in parts of the United States, causing mining difficulty to rise roughly 15% to about 144 trillion (CoinWarz). This reversed an earlier ~10–11% downward adjustment that followed coordinated shutdowns and extreme weather, when US hashrate dropped from roughly 400 EH/s to near 198 EH/s. Major miners and pools — including Foundry USA, LM Funding America and Canaan — curtailed operations or enrolled in demand‑response programs, returning contracted power to grids and receiving curtailment payments that in some cases offset a meaningful share of revenue. The protocol recalibrates difficulty every 2,016 blocks (~two weeks) to target ~10‑minute block times; a return of hashpower increases difficulty, which strengthens network security but reduces BTC earned per unit of compute and squeezes margins for miners using older rigs or facing high electricity costs. Market reaction has been muted: BTC traded near the high‑$60k range with light volume and rangebound moves as macro and geopolitical headlines dominated price action. The event highlights the U.S. role as a major share of global hashpower, increasing the importance of regional weather, grid policy and flexible power contracts for miner economics and network resilience.