Bitcoin (BTC) miners have earned nearly $600,000 in two months from a new controversial NFT protocol called Ordinals that has triggered a surge in user activity.

With fourth-quarter earnings for bitcoin miners starting, industry experts are closely watching how companies plan to deploy hardware and manage their treasury going forward. 2022 was a lesson in frenzied growth and even in the face of bitcoin's recent rally, combined with a dip in energy prices in January, healthy balance sheets and access to low-cost power will still be a winning combination.

United States Democratic lawmakers are intensifying their efforts for crypto mining companies to reveal their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions as the industry grows.

Bitcoin mining firms Hut 8 Mining (HUT) and U.S. Bitcoin Corp. (USBTC) agreed to merge into a single company with access to about 825 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity.

The Bitcoin mining difficulty level jumped 10.26% on Monday morning in Hong Kong, hitting an all-time high reading of 37.59 trillion, as several U.S-based miners came back online from recent winter storms that forced them to unplug, according to data from BTC.com.

Bitcoin miner Bitfarms (BITF) is looking to modify a $20 million loan from bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, the firm said in a press release on Friday.

According to a report published by state-owned daily news program Xinwen Lianbo on Dec. 29, Xiao Yi, former Communist Party Secretary of the City of Fuzhou, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the Zhejiang Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court. During his tenure as director from 2008 to 2021, Yi was accused of accepting over 125 million CNY ($18 million) in bribes related to construction programs and illicit promotions.

British-owned Pega Pool, launching in Q1 2023, is opening its offering to Bitcoin mining clients regardless of their renewable energy usage—but will reward clients that mine using renewables with a 50% reduction in their pool fees, from 2% to 1%.

Bitcoin miners in the far north of Norway and Sweden, where they had been working to avoid excessive electricity bills, have shut down for the winter as energy prices continue to rise.

Bitcoin’s total hashrate tapped a low of 170 exahash per second (EH/s) on Dec. 25, as reports noted that bitcoin miners in Texas curtailed their hashpower during a massive winter freeze. Statistics show that close to 100 exahash dropped off the network but rebounded from the 170 EH/s low to 240 EH/s by 12:00 p.m. (ET).