The issuer of USDT, which is also the largest stablecoin by market cap in the world, is about to make a major upgrade.
According to the company's incoming CEO, Paolo Ardoino, the company is about to break into Bitcoin Mining. Moreso, Tether plans to splurge a whopping $500 million on this new project to build new mining facilities and support other miners in the industry.
According to a new interview with Bloomberg, Ardoino mentioned that with this new investment, Tether aims to increase its share of the Bitcoin mining network to about 1%.
They aim to accomplish this by setting up new mining sites in South American countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador.
South American countries, to begin with, offer low electricity costs, several sources of renewable energy, and clear crypto regulations. All of these are favourable conditions for Bitcoin mining, explaining Tether's decision.
Ardoino also mentioned that these new Bitcoin mining rigs will have power capacities of about 40 to 70 megawatts (MW) each.
A major part of the $500 million the company aims to invest, comes from a $610 million loan that the company extended to German AI and Blockchain mining company, "Northern Data Group".
Tether announced the loan earlier this month, right after a strategic investment in the German mining company in September.
Tether says that this loan is part of a larger plan to increase lending activities this year. The firm aims to diversify its streams of income, and also support the Bitcoin network at the same time.
According to Ardoino, they aim to be able to generate about 120 MW of direct mining power by the end of 2023.
This figure is also expected to go up to 450 MW by the end of 2025.
Tether is also considering building a 300-MW mining facility and is using containers to house its mining equipment.
Ardoino says that this will allow the company to easily move its mining equipment when electricity prices fluctuate.
Ardoino concluded that Tether is still learning and growing in the mining sector, and becoming the biggest miner in the world is not the goal for now.
Ardoino will take over as Tether's CEO in December while retaining his role as the chief technical officer of Bitfinex.
The incoming CEO will replace Jean-Louis van der Velde, who has been the company's CEO since it started operation in 2014.
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