**[Winter Storm in the U.S. Causes Mining Farms to Reduce Load, Foundry Pool's Hashrate Drops by 60%]** BlockBeats reported on January 26, citing The Block, that a winter storm sweeping across the United States has significantly curtailed Bitcoin mining activities, forcing a substantial portion of the network's hashrate offline. Mining farm operators have proactively reduced electricity consumption to alleviate pressure on the power grid. The storm, named "Fernan," has brought extreme cold, snowfall, and freezing conditions to most parts of the U.S., leaving over 1 million residents without power. Power grid operators have issued energy-saving alerts in response. During the extreme weather, Foundry USA, the largest mining pool by hashrate, has seen its connected hashrate drop by approximately 60% since Friday. According to data from miningpoolstats.stream, its hashrate fell from a recent peak of around 328 EH/s to approximately 139 EH/s. Foundry currently accounts for about 23% of the global mining pool hashrate market share. An estimated 200 EH/s of hashrate across the network has gone offline, causing Bitcoin's average block time to exceed the protocol's target of 10 minutes. Mempool data shows that the average block time has risen to approximately 12.4 minutes. The next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment is expected to decrease by 15%, a mechanism designed to restore block production pace following sustained hashrate declines. Other U.S.-based mining pools have also been affected. Another major North American mining pool, Luxor, saw its hashrate drop from around 45 EH/s to approximately 26 EH/s during the same period. Antpool and Binance Pool experienced smaller hashrate reductions, indicating that the total network reduction may exceed 110 EH/s, despite these pools having lower concentration in the U.S.