Genesis Digital Assets, the Bitcoin mining industry giant, has raised $431 million in funding to expand its operations in the US and Nordic countries.
This is one of the largest funding rounds in the mining industry ever, led by Paradigm, a crypto investment firm that also backs Coinbase and FTX.
Summary
Genesis Digital Assets and the largest funding round
According to reports, the $431 million funding round, led by Paradigm, also included other famous names in the investment space.
NYDIG, Stoneridge, FTX, Ribbit, Electric Capital, Skybridge are just a few, along with Kingsway Capital, which already invested $125 million in the previous funding round in 2021.
As part of the funding round, Matt Huang, co-founder and Managing Partner of Paradigm, joined the board of Genesis Digital Assets.
In this regard, Huang commented:
“Over nearly a decade, GDA’s team have built what we regard as the most impressive bitcoin mining operation in the world. They have everything it takes to continue to scale their operations and make bitcoin mining even more efficient, and we’re thrilled to support their mission”.
Genesis Digital Assets and its bitcoin mining objectives
The mining industry giant has also outlined its current mining capabilities and the goals it intends to achieve.
Basically, as of this September 2021, Genesis Digital Assets’ data centre capacity is more than 170 megawatts, which translates into a total hashrate of more than 3.3 Exahashes (EH/s), which is more than 2.4% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate.
The company adds that another 8.6 Exahashes (EH/s) will come online during the next 12 months, and by the end of 2023, Genesis Digital Assets expects to reach a capacity of over 1.4 gigawatts.
In this regard, Marco Streng, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets left a comment:
“As we work towards our goal of bringing 1.4 gigawatts online by 2023, the capital raised from this round will be used to expand our bitcoin mining operations in locations where clean energy is easily accessible. We’re excited to have strategic investors on board and look forward to executing on our mission together”.
The issue of green bitcoin mining
In Genesis Digital Assets’ statement, there is no mention of the issue of green or sustainable bitcoin mining. Streng’s comments mention places where clean energy is easily accessible.
Nothing to do with its competitor Blockstream which earlier this month announced its partnership with the multinational investment bank, Macquarie Group Limited precisely to implement alternative and, above all, renewable bitcoin mining projects.
In this sense, Blockstream’s goal would be to build a new infrastructure based on green energy.
In this regard, Samson Mow, CSO of Blockstream, had also stated during an interview with CNBC that “Bitcoin is always sustainable”, also claiming that all the concerns of people about the consumption and waste of energy for mining BTC are “misplaced”.