Paolo Ardoino says Tether is planning a massive expansion into Bitcoin (BTC) mining and he is expected to take over the helm of the company soon.
The stablecoin company may spend around $500 million over the next six months building mining facilities and investing in other miners Ardoino Tell Bloomberg in an interview. The company will build mining facilities in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador, increasing its hashrate to 1% of the BTC mining network. He continued that the capacity of the new site would be between 40 and 70 megawatts.
We’re about to add another extremely powerful piece to the puzzle @Tether_to Ecosystem.
There are 5 exciting projects for 2024 (and counting).
Some of these may permanently eliminate some popular Web2 centralized services.Pure real-world ecosystems are also called “things…
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) November 12, 2023
The mining investment forms part of a $610 million debt financing facility Tether announced earlier this month to German mining company Northern Data Group. The loan is consistent with a pattern of increased lending for Tether (USDT) this year. Tether made a strategic investment in Northern Data Group in September to support artificial intelligence projects.
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Ardoino further stated that Tether expects to expand its direct mining operations to 120 MW by the end of this year and 450 MW by the end of 2025. The company is also considering building a 300-megawatt facility and is building in-house containers that can be moved when electricity prices change. Ardoino said in the interview:
“For us, mining is something we have to learn and grow over time. We are in no rush to become the largest miner in the world.”
Under plans announced in October, Ardoino will become Tether CEO in December and will retain his position as chief technology officer of parent company Bitfinex.
As of press time, Tether has not responded to Cointelegraph’s inquiries.
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