Amid the expanding global energy crisis along with the ongoing crypto market crash, Texas bitcoin miners are being forced to shut down operations. After suffering the consequences of an early crypto winter, now Texas miners are forced to halt operations because of an upcoming heat wave that is predicted to push the state’s power grid to its saturation point.
According to Bloomberg, the majority of bitcoin mining farms have shut down operations as the energy crisis intensifies in Texas. The president of the Texas Blockchain Association, Lee Bratcher told the publication that,
“There are over 1,000 megawatts worth of Bitcoin mining load that responded to ERCOTs conservation request by turning off their machines to conserve energy for the grid. This represents nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin mining load in Texas and allows for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use”.
Texas Bitcoin Miners Big In Philanthropy
This is not the first time that bitcoin miners in Texas sacrificed their jobs to facilitate the availability of excess power reserves. Earlier this year in February, Texas crypto miners declared to drastically drop their energy consumption, in an attempt to stabilize the grid during the Winter Storm Landon.
Even the state’s largest Bitcoin miner, Riot blockchain took part in the deed by suspending mining operations. Riot’s communications director, Trystine Payfer ascertained the move as a voluntary step, noting that “Whinstone began taking proactive measures to prepare for shutting down its mining operations in response to any demand surges in ERCOT [grid operator — Electric Reliability Council of Texas]”.
Is BTC Mining No Longer Profitable?
While in Texas, miners took a conscious decision to halt activities due to the energy crisis, however, the ongoing bear has forced the involuntary shut down of crypto mining rigs. A recent report from Bitdeer, a company that provides computing power-sharing services, highlighted that old bitcoin mining rigs have trembled upon shutdown prices due to a lack of profitability.
Additionally, according to Glassnode Studio’s BTC hash ribbons data, the chart had begun to signal an inversion. Basically, the Hash Ribbon act as a market indicator, assuming that Bitcoin tends to reach a bottom when miners capitulate, or when Bitcoin becomes too expensive to mine. In light of this, the bitcoin mining hash rate has also come offline, confirming that the miners’ incomes are stressing the network.