Tether plans to become the largest miner in the world

Tether expects to take first place among all mining companies by the end of 2025, said the head of Paolo Ardoino in the podcast of The Block. According to him, participation in mining, in addition to receiving income, is important as a strategic step to protect your own investment portfolio. He writes about this RBC Crypto.

Ardoino noted that a direct purchase of bitcoin usually gives a greater income than mining. But for Tether, which owns more than 100 thousand BTC (more than $ 10 billion at the current rate), to fundamentally participate in ensuring the security of the network.

“I think that it is obvious that if you have $ 1 million and you must decide where to invest it – in mining or in the purchase of bitcoins, you will always earn more money by buying bitcoins. But in our case, given our openness to bitcoin, it is important to be part of the network security. It is quite possible that by the end of this year Tether will become the largest miner of bitcoins, ”he said, adding that it is not always worth trusting miners who promise investors more money.

There are no public official documents confirming the ownership of Tether 100 thousand BTC. This information was indicated by Ardoino at the end of May as part of a performance at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. In addition to bitcoin, he indicated that the company owns 50 tons of gold. Tether remains one of the most profitable companies in crypto: according to the results of 2024, its net profit amounted to $ 13 billion, mainly due to income from US bonds, as well as reassessment of assets, including gold and bitcoin. The main product of the company is the USDT stablecoin with more than $ 156.7 billion. According to Ardoino, the number of USDT users, according to conservative estimates, is 400 million around the world.

Tether began to buy bitcoin in 2022, and in May 2023, she officially fixed the quarterly distribution strategy of 15% of the profit for the purchase of cryptocurrency.

Tether does not disclose the hashrate indicators of his equipment. Since 2023, the company has invested over $ 2 billion in mining and energy in Latin America. In total, 15 sites are involved in Uruguay, Paraguay and Salvador, including the construction of substations, the launch of objects at renewable energy sources and Tether shared participation in working farms.

The largest miners among public companies are now Mara (57.3 EH/S), Cleanspark (50 EH/S), Iren (38.4 EH/S), RIOT (33.7 EH/S) and Core Scientific (19.1 EH/S).

Bitcoin is mined on specialized ASIC devices that conduct mathematical calculations according to the SHA-256 algorithm. Heshching speed, or hashrate, is a term that is used to measure the power of devices involved in cryptocurrency mining. The indicator determines the number of operations (hashes) per second that can produce mining equipment (H/S). As the values ​​of the hash, decimal prefixes began to be used: Terahesh (Th/S), Exachash (EH/S), Petamesh (PH/S) and others.

Mining has become an important element of development for Tether last year. In April 2024, the company introduced an updated concept of work, calling mining one of the priority activities. The company has invested in cryptocurrency mining using renewable energy sources in Uruguay, Paraguay and Salvador, the power of each of them was estimated from 40 to 70 MW. Last year, the company also invested $ 150 million in the Bitdeer mining company.

In addition to mining, Tether invests funds in artificial intelligence technology, financial infrastructure for developing markets and biotechnology.

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