Ethiopia cuts Bitcoin miners’ power supply by 77% on hydropower shortage

Ethiopia's decision exposes a structural tension in state-backed mining: operations tied to a single power source carry grid-priority risk that no hashrate contract can fully offset. A 77% cut, driven by hydrology rather than policy, shows that climate and reservoir levels can override the revenue logic of hosting miners, even when they fund a third of utility income. The immediate losers are the miners and the utility's balance sheet; the question worth watching is whether this curtailment becomes seasonal precedent or a one-off drought response.