Foundry USA Bitcoin hashrate plunges ~60% after US winter storm Fern
Foundry USA’s Bitcoin mining hashrate fell by roughly 60% since last Friday after U.S. winter storm Fern triggered widespread power outages. Foundry lost nearly 200 EH/s of active capacity and now reports about 198 EH/s, roughly 23% of global pool hashrate. The drop lengthened Foundry-controlled block intervals to about 12 minutes. Other U.S.-focused pools, including Luxor, also curtailed operations to reduce stress on regional grids as the storm left more than one million people without power across southeastern, northeastern and parts of the midwestern U.S. The event highlights miners’ role as adjustable electrical loads: they can power down during peak demand or emergencies and ramp up to absorb surplus generation when supply exceeds demand. For traders, this represents a temporary reduction in U.S. mining capacity with likely short-term effects on block propagation, miner revenue and fee dynamics; the disruption is described as temporary but underlines the sensitivity of Bitcoin’s hash distribution to weather and grid stability.
Neutral
The immediate market impact is likely neutral. A ~60% drop in Foundry USA’s reported pool hashrate (≈200 EH/s) temporarily reduces U.S. mining capacity and slowed some blocks to ~12 minutes, which can slightly affect block propagation, miner revenues and short-term fee dynamics. However, this disruption is described as weather-related and temporary: miners can resume operations once grid conditions improve, and global hashrate and difficulty adjustments will absorb the shock over subsequent difficulty cycles. Price reaction historically to localized, short-lived miner outages is muted because supply-side issuance and network security remain intact long term. Traders should expect possible short-term volatility around miner revenue and fees, and small transient impacts on BTC transaction backlog, but not a sustained directional move for Bitcoin’s price unless outages persist or expand. Key trade considerations: monitor hash rate recovery, mempool and fee trends, miner sell pressure, and any prolonged grid risks in major mining regions.