Last year, Tether, which earned a hefty $13 billion from USDT, had its CEO Paolo Ardoino recently claiming that Tether will become the "world's top Bitcoin mining enterprise" by the end of this year:
This is not just a financial investment, but also to protect the security of over 100,000 BTC held by Tether.
Why Mine? Coin Security and the 'Stable Energy' Dual Objectives
Ardoino candidly admits that directly buying coins might be more cost-effective, but for Tether, which holds 100,000 BTC, joining mining is equivalent to becoming a member of the "Bitcoin network security team", reducing dependence on external miners and indirectly protecting its massive reserves.
He proposed four major visions of "stable energy, stable currency, stable communication, and stable intelligence", with mining being the core of "stable energy".
$2 Billion, 15 Locations: Tether's Global Computing Power Puzzle
It is understood that since 2023, Tether has invested over $2 billion in building green energy mining farms in 15 locations including Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador. Their current goal is to continue generating high computing power and overtake all competitors by the end of 2025.
The latest publicly available data for existing listed mining companies is as follows:
- Marathon Digital: 57.3 EH/s
- CleanSpark: 50 EH/s
- Iris Energy: 38.4 EH/s
- Riot Platforms: 33.7 EH/s
- Core Scientific: 19.1 EH/s
Currently, with the total network computing power at around 810 EH/s, Tether would need to reach a hundred EH/s level to top the list. Whether it can surpass others in a short time is unknown and might just be Ardoino's marketing slogan; but it must be said that Tether indeed has the financial means to continuously enhance its mining computing power.
Open Source Mining OS: Computing Power Democratization or Moat?
In addition to hardware, Tether plans to release an open-source Mining OS (MOS) in the fourth quarter of 2025. This system can run from Raspberry Pi DIY mining machines to millions of ASIC machines and will incorporate AI to assist in capacity and power consumption monitoring. The official statement is to "democratize" mining, allowing small and medium-sized players to also get a share, further strengthening Bitcoin's decentralization.
However, controlling the operating system standard could also become a new moat. If more miners rely on MOS, Tether's discourse power in the industrial chain will naturally rise. In any case, let's wait and see if Tether can realize its grand vision by the end of 2025.
