Canada-based mining company Hut 8 is now mining operations with Foundry USA Pool, a subsidiary that is wholly owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG). The mining company said it added a portion of its total fleet, close to 14,400 Bitcoin mining equipment, and more than 0.81 exahashes to Foundry USA Pool.
Hut 8 may even deploy an additional 5,000 machines by August this year, thus increasing computing power on Foundry USA Pool to more than 1.20 exahashes by August.
At the start of the year, Hut 8 had finalized a loan to purchase 5,400 units of MicroBT’s mining equipment, which was set to increase the firm’s capacity to mine Bitcoin by 475 petahashes per second (PH/s). The mining company had completed the equipment financing loan worth over $11 million from Foundry Digital.
Hut 8, a publicly-traded Bitcoin miner, reportedly holds more self-mined Bitcoins than any other mining entity. Foundry USA Pool’s other customers include Blockcap among others and is a major institutional miner based out of North America. The company believed that its “competitive payouts, fees, and services,” would enable Foundry USA Pool to serve as a “strong US-based alternative” to mining pools that are otherwise China-dominated.
Additionally, CEO of DCG Barry Silbert noted on Twitter:
One by one, all of the major North American bitcoin miners are switching from Chinese mining pools to the Foundry USA pool https://t.co/utlqeHXnYP
— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) March 23, 2021
Addressing the announcement, Jaime Leverton, CEO of Hut 8 said that the mining company was focused on “growing shareholder value,” and added:
Having a formidable bitcoin mining pool based and operated entirely in North America is important to us, as we continue our momentum as one of the largest and most innovative Bitcoin miners in the western hemisphere.
While the Bitcoin mining industry may be thriving, its dependency on high energy usage has alarmed industry leaders. Microsoft founder Bill Gates admitted that he was “not bullish” on Bitcoin due to its environmental consequences. Although the news has not attracted much attention, inflation in the price of chips has been linked to crypto mining.
