Ethiopia Cuts Bitcoin Miner Power to 23% Over Drought — SkimNews
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- Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) cut electricity deliveries to Bitcoin miners in three stages — from 75% to 50% to 23% of contracted levels — after El Niño-driven dry conditions reduced water inflows into its hydroelectric reservoirs by 20%.
- EEP CEO Ashebir Balcha said the utility prioritized households and manufacturers and warned of further reductions or restrictions on electricity exports to neighboring countries when conditions are reassessed in October.
- Bitcoin miners consumed nearly one-third of Ethiopia's electricity output and generated 35% of EEP's revenue last fiscal year, drawing international operators including Phoenix Group, which expanded its Ethiopian mining capacity to 132 megawatts in April 2025.
- Economist Saifedean Ammous argued in a Tuesday X post that global Bitcoin mining electricity consumption and capital expenditure may have peaked in 2024–2025, contending that Bitcoin's price would need to rise more than 18.92% per year just to maintain the dollar value of newly mined coins.
- Bitcoin is down more than 35% over the past 12 months per Yahoo Finance data, compounding pressure from the halving mechanism that cuts miner block rewards roughly every four years.
- AI data centers are emerging as an alternative revenue path for miners, with public miners potentially needing around $50 billion to develop planned AI infrastructure per VanEck data cited by Miner Weekly in June.
Why it matters: Bitcoin miners accounted for 35% of EEP's revenue but consumed nearly a third of Ethiopia's electricity — meaning this drought-driven rationing exposes how heavily the state utility bet on cheap hydropower to attract crypto operators. The October reassessment creates a near-term cliff: deeper cuts or export restrictions would directly hit operators like Phoenix Group that expanded capacity just months ago.
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