The intense summer heat in North America is expected to cause a decline in the processing power of the Bitcoin network, as miners are forced to scale back their operations. This reduction in competition may provide relief to miners who have been struggling with decreased profits due to the recent halving event, which reduced mining rewards by half. Despite the recent surge in computing power, miners have been facing dwindling profit margins in an increasingly crowded market.

The primary drivers of the growing computing power are the activation of previously purchased mining rigs and miners' efforts to upgrade their equipment with more efficient rigs to maintain profitability after the halving. However, this growth is expected to slow as the summer heat forces miners to curtail operations. Miners rely on powerful machines that generate significant heat, making heat mitigation a significant operational challenge, particularly during the summer when energy demand surges.

As a result, the processing power of the Bitcoin network has decreased in the past two summers, leading to lower difficulty levels in mining Bitcoin blocks. The hashrate has already begun to decline, dropping by 10% since its all-time high in March. This decrease is expected to continue as the summer heat intensifies, particularly in Texas, where many miners are located. The reduced competition may benefit some miners, and those with flexible power purchase agreements, such as Riot Platforms, may even earn extra income by curtailing their operations.