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Hashprice moderates the electricity demand response of Bitcoin miners

Subir Majumder

arXiv 30 May 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2606.00587 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Large controllable loads, such as Bitcoin-mining facilities, are increasingly viewed as valuable sources of power-system flexibility, yet the conditions under which this flexibility is realized remain poorly understood. We examine this issue in the Texas power market, where large loads face both wholesale electricity prices and incentives created by coincident-peak-based transmission charges. We find that mining load declines as costs rise across both channels, and this response is moderated by hashprice, a measure of expected revenue for Bitcoin miners. When hashprice is higher, mining load is less responsive to electricity-sector costs. This pattern is consistent with aggregate mining load arising from heterogeneous devices operated around distinct breakeven points. The wholesale-price response illustrates this mechanism most clearly. Mining load remains largely online at low electricity prices but begins to decline once prices exceed an implied curtailment threshold, and higher hashprice shifts this threshold to higher wholesale prices. Bitcoin miners therefore respond to electricity-sector costs, but the available flexibility varies with revenue conditions in the crypto-financial sector. Treating such loads as stable demand-response resources may overstate their available flexibility.

Citation extraction

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Public Utility Commission of Texas (1999) Order Adopting Amendments to Transmission Service Rates and Recovery of Fuel Costs0.64422100%
2Alexander Neumueller and Gina C. Pieters and Kamiar Mohaddes and Val… (2025) Cambridge digital mining industry report: Global operations, sentiment, and energy use0.64422100%
3Lee Bratcher (2024) ERCOT data tells the story0.40511100%
4Alex de Vries (2018) Bitcoin's Growing Energy Problem0.40511100%
5Mandy DeRoche and Jacob Elkin (2025) How much do we subsidize cryptocurrency mining’s electricity use? No one knows.0.40511100%
6Electric Reliability Council of Texas (2025) Monthly Outlook for Resource Adequacy (MORA)0.40511100%
7Electric Reliability Council of Texas (2025) ERCOT nodal protocols, Section 4, Day-ahead operations.0.40511100%
8International Energy Agency (2025) The Value of Demand Flexibility: Benefits beyond Balancing0.40511100%
9Luxor Documentation Hub (2025) Understanding Bitcoin hashprice: What it is, how it’s calculated, and the factors that impact it0.40511100%
10North American Electric Reliability Corporation (2025) Characteristics and Risks of Emerging Large Loads: Large Loads Task Force White Paper0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 37 scored citations.