Amid the growing global energy crisis and the ongoing crypto market crash, bitcoin miners in Texas are being forced to shut down their operations. After suffering the effects of the early crypto winter, Texas miners are now forced to shut down their operations due to an emerging heat wave that is expected to push the state’s power grid to its saturation point.
According to Bloomberg, most bitcoin mining companies have shut down operations as the Texas energy crisis deepens. The president of the Texas Blockchain Association, Lee Bratcher, told the publication that,
“There are over 1,000 megawatts of Bitcoin mining tax that responded to ERCOT’s conservation request by turning off their machines to conserve energy for the grid. This represents nearly all of the industrial-scale Bitcoin mining tax in Texas and causes more than 1% of the total network capacity can be pushed back to the network for retail and commercial use.
Texas Bitcoin Miners Big on Philanthropy
This isn’t the first time bitcoin miners are coming in Texas sacrificed their jobs to facilitate the availability of excess energy reserves. Earlier this year in February, Texas crypto miners explained for their . to drop drastically energy consumptionin an effort to stabilize the net during the Winter Storm Landon.
Even the state’s largest Bitcoin miner, Riot blockchain, took part in the act by suspending mining operations. Riot’s communications director, Trystine Payfer, determined that the move was a voluntary move, noting that: “Whinstone began to take proactive measures to prepare for the shutdown of its mining operations in response to any surge in demand in ERCOT [grid operator — Electric Reliability Council of Texas]†
Is BTC mining no longer profitable?
While in Texas, miners made a conscious decision to shut down operations due to the energy crisis, but the persistent bear has forced crypto’s involuntary shutdown mining harness. A recent report from Bitdeer, a company that provides computing power-sharing services, highlighted that old bitcoin mining rigs were shaking at closing prices due to a lack of profitability.
In addition, according to Glassnode Studio’s BTC hash ribbon data, the chart started to signal an inversion. Basically, the hash ribbon acts as a market indicator, assuming Bitcoin tends to bottom when miners capitulate, or when Bitcoin becomes too expensive to mine. In light of this, the hash rate of bitcoin mining has also come offline, confirming that the miners’ incomes are straining the network.