The summer heat has hit US-based Bitcoin mining operations, reported by several public miners reporting a low low hashrate in June due to high power costs and cuts to avoid grid penalties.
This article comes from Theminermag, an industry publication of cryptocurrency mining, and focuses on the latest news and research on the institutional Bitcoin mining company.
Cipher Mining said Tuesday it had expanded its hashrate capacity installed that month to 16.8 EH/s. However, production of 160 BTC means an average realized capacity of 10.58 EH/s, representing only 62.95% utilization.
That figure showed a drop from the 11 EH/S realized in both April and May, despite the addition of new capacity from the Black Pearl sites that began hashing at the end of June.
Cipher attributed it to the decision to more aggressively reduce electricity usage as part of its “4CP avoidance strategy.” This is a practice designed to limit power consumption during peak demand periods that can cause higher grid fees. Cipher added that data from June will lead to further improvements in cuts through the summer months.
Mara, the largest Bitcoin miner by installed capacity, also reported slowing production. That realised hashrate fell to 47.13 EH/s in June. It represents nearly 20% from May’s 58.15 EH/s, equivalent to 82.11% of the energyized fleet.
“This reduction was primarily due to reduced uptime due to weather-related reductions and the temporary deployment of old machinery in Garden City while storm-related damage was improved,” CEO Fred Thiel said. He also cited natural variations of block production. This is because it operates its own mining pool, which exposes Mara.
The slowdown in production due to reductions occurs when Bitcoin’s network hashrate experienced a prominent pullback in late June. After peaking near 950 EH/s at the beginning of the month, the network’s seven-day average was soaked at about 850 EH/s, bringing attention to possible causes ranging from the US summer heatwave to geopolitical tensions.
The timing of the decline coincided with the US military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, which helped to have a hashrate contraction, prompting speculation that Iranian miners could have gone offline. However, more specific data from public North American miners emphasize that grid-related reductions, particularly during peak electricity demand, are in mind the dynamics of the dominant and recurring force-forming networks each summer.
The original article can be found here.