Foundry’s Kevin Zhang with Jihan Wu, the founder and chairman of Bitdeer and a co-founder of Bitmain.
Kevin Zhang
Crypto winters don’t scare Kevin Zhang, who has been in the business of mining bitcoin for ten years. He’s lived through a few bear markets in the last decade, but no matter where he has set up shop — the U.S., Sweden, the Republic of Georgia, and China — he’s survived every one. In fact, it is precisely when things look most grim for the sector that Zhang typically doubles down.
In 2013, for example, China banned bitcoin for the first time. The world’s largest cryptocurrency immediately began to crash, and it was a slow bleed down in price for the next few years. As a wave of Western companies went bankrupt, Zhang decided to jump into mining.
“I saw an opportunity to leverage my Chinese language skills and cultural background to become one of the earliest and largest overseas customers of Chinese ASIC manufacturers,” said Zhang, who was born in America but spent his early childhood in Beijing and Shenzhen.
For the next four years, he sourced gear and institutional knowledge from China, ultimately scaling up a site in Montana to become the largest bitcoin mining facility in North America. Zhang has since brought that same cavalier attitude to Foundry, a mining firm tucked under Barry Silbert’s crypto empire.
In May 2020, bitcoin miners suffered two big blows: Much of the world shut down as Covid cases spiked and the most recent halving had just slashed the mining reward from 12.5 to 6.25 bitcoin per block mined. Zhang and the team at Foundry shrugged off the double whammy of blackswan events and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its mining business, deploying tens of thousands of machines. By Nov. 2021, bitcoin hit an all-time peak of nearly $70,000.
But the stakes are higher this time around.
Bitcoin miners are barreling toward the “halving” — a major market-making event that some fear will be a death knell to many in the industry. It happens roughly every four years and refers to an inflation-curbing schedule baked into bitcoin’s code where the reward for mining a new block of transactions gets cut in half. Historically, it also coincides with the start of a bull run in the price of cryptocurrencies.
Whereas traders eagerly await the halving, hoping for a potential spike in bitcoin’s price, it represents a direct hit to revenues for miners, as they will receive 50% less bitcoin for every block they verify. In a capital-intensive industry with already tight margins, the reduced reward has the potential to prove apocalyptic for some operators.
“This is the ultimate test for miners,” said Zhang, Foundry’s senior vice president of business development. “Some may not make it through; some may. But I feel confident that if they work with us, and work with other strong actors, they may have a good chance to survive this.”
When the halving takes effect in Apr. 2024, the reward for miners will drop to 3.125 bitcoin, or around $83,000. By comparison, the first blocks of bitcoin mined in 2009 carried a reward of 50 bitcoin.
Without a commensurate surge in bitcoin’s price to counterbalance the diminished block rewards, many mining outfits — especially those burdened by rising energy costs, paying down on machines bought at peak pricing in 2021 — could get obliterated overnight.
But rather than seeing the 2024 halving as an extinction-level event, Foundry is expanding its operations — diving into machine sales, on-site deployment, and logistics.
FoundryX is a marketplace for buying and selling miners, both new and used — while their recently unveiled logistics arm deals in the deployment and shipment of miners across state lines and international borders. Managed site services is another program newly debuted where, for its U.S. customers, Foundry will help staff and manage miners on-site.
“Foundry is in this for the long haul,” said Zhang. “We’re taking a long-term bet on bitcoin and on the fact that bitcoin mining will survive and will bounce back even stronger.”
After China launched a fresh campaign against bitcoin mining in 2021, much of the industry migrated west to the U.S. Since then, some states have battled it out to attract mining companies, while others have actively legislated against them.
The controversy goes to energy consumption. Mining at-scale involves data centers packed with highly specialized computers that crunch math equations in order to validate transactions and simultaneously create new tokens. It requires expensive equipment, some technical know-how, and a lot of electricity. Whereas places like Texas and Wyoming welcome the trade, New York lawmakers have created rules designed, in part, to keep miners out.
A mining pool lets a single miner combine its hashing power with thousands of other miners all over the world. Even though some miners opt to hide their geographic footprint with a virtual private network, pools still function as a useful gauge of the general geographic spread of the mining industry.
Foundry opted to show states even with small amounts of hashrate — an industry term used to describe the computing power of all miners in the bitcoin network — to demonstrate that mining is happening across the country on the Foundry USA Pool.
Whinstone CEO Chad Harris takes CNBC on a tour of the largest bitcoin mine in North America.
The new data also confirms that Texas has cemented its position as the crypto capital of the United States, as miners flock there for abundant clean energy and a permissive regulatory environment.
Texas made up 8.43% of the hashrate in the U.S. as of the end of 2021, and that percentage has jumped to 28.50% as of July 27, 2023 — though Foundry notes that the data was aggregated during a period of heavy curtailment in July, so Texas’s percentage of actual hashrate is even greater than what’s reflected on their latest map. Zhang added that Texas’s growth in Foundry’s map also had to do with the fact that the firm took on more clients there in the past two years.
Given that the U.S. is currently the world leader in terms of its share of the collective hashrate of the bitcoin network, that makes Texas the bitcoin capital of the world.
Texas has grown to dominate bitcoin mining partly because of support from local authorities and the operator of the Texas energy grid, ERCOT. ERCOT has historically struggled with fluctuating energy prices and sporadic service, so it strikes deals with flexible energy buyers like bitcoin miners to help keep excess energy online during low-demand cycles, then offers incentives for miners to stop their work, allowing that excess energy to flow back to the grid when demand is high.
Research from Castle Island Venture’s Nic Carter and a collective of other industry practitioners including Lancium’s Shaun Connell and the former interim chief of ERCOT, Brad Jones, found that over the past decade, instances of negative pricing surged considerably, accounting for more than 6% of all hours in 2022 across wholesale markets in the U.S. The research paper went on to note that negative priced power may increase further in Texas, in particular, given that the state is rapidly onboarding wind and solar to its grid. Those conditions are ideal for bitcoin miners.
“All you have to do is pay the miners slightly more than what they would have made mining for bitcoin that hour,” said bitcoin mining engineer Brandon Arvanaghi, who now runs Meow, a company that enables corporate treasury participation in crypto markets. Arvanaghi calls the setup a “a win-win.”
For years, Riot has been powering down operations at its Rockdale mine, about an hour from Austin, to help ease the burden on the state’s grid. In July, for instance, bitcoin miner Riot Platforms raked in more than $31.7 million to keep its mining operations offline — $24.2 million came from energy sold back to the ERCOT grid and the other $7.4 million came via demand response credits.
“August was a landmark month for Riot in showcasing the benefits of our unique power strategy,” said Jason Les, CEO of Riot, in a recent press release. “The effects of these credits significantly lower Riot’s cost to mine Bitcoin and are a key element in making Riot one of the lowest cost producers of bitcoin in the industry.”
Even during the bear market, Texas miners are building out, buying new sites and fresh fleets of hardware.
Riot Platforms, for example, has aggressive expansion plans in place in other parts of the state, including Navarro and Milam counties.
“Riot’s ability to source such a significant expansion opportunity in Texas exemplifies the Company’s partnership-driven approach with all stakeholders, including the Company’s business partners, ERCOT, and all levels of government, to commit to sustainable economic development,” Les said of the expansion plan.
Bitdeer, which operates its biggest facility four-tenths of a mile down the road Riot’s mine in Rockdale, is also in expansion mode. The mining company was spun off from Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain and went public via SPAC earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Cipher Mining purchased 11,000 new mining machines for its facility in Odessa, Texas, while Foundry has acquired mining sites from the bankruptcy estate of Compute North in Minden, Nebraska, and Big Spring, Texas.
Elsewhere in the U.S., previous leaders in bitcoin mining saw their influence wane.
In the last two years, Foundry’s dataset shows that Georgia — a miner-friendly state offering competitive pricing on electricity, as well as a mix of renewable power sources including solar and nuclear, has seen its share of the U.S. hashrate plunge from 34.17% to 9.64%. The drop was driven by a combination of factors, including Texas’s growth overall and Foundry’s expanding operations in particular, as well as by measurement differences — one large miner in the state declined to have their activity included in this year’s map.
Though its growth was stagnant compared to the previous study, New York’s share of the U.S. hashrate declined from 9.53% in 2021 to 8.75%, driven mainly by the state’s moratorium against new miners issued in Nov. 2022.
Other mining winners that showed notable growth during the period included New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, while Nebraska, North Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Washington all saw significant drops.
Despite the plunge in bitcoin valuations since 2021, as well as increasing regulatory scrutiny from the Securities Exchange Commission and other agencies looking to regulate some cryptocurrencies like securities, the total U.S. hashrate — a proxy for industry competition — has more than doubled since the end of 2021.
According to an analyst note from JPMorgan Chase on Sept. 1, the bitcoin network’s overall hashrate set a record high for the eighth consecutive month in August. Foundry says the rise is driven in part by institutions entering the space.
JP Morgan researchers also note that the mining business has gotten less lucrative — miners make an average of $66,400 per day per exahash of mining capacity, versus nearly $342,000 at bitcoin’s peak in Nov. 2021.
Meanwhile, the aggregate market cap of the 14 U.S.-listed miners tracked by the bank has plunged below $10 billion. Riot was the biggest loser in August, down 39%, while Bitdeer was the biggest winner, up 30%.
People take photos in front of a giant Google logo at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on Aug 13, 2024 where the “Made by Google” media event was held today.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Nuclear developer Elementl Power said Wednesday it’s signed an agreement with Google to develop three sites for advanced reactors. It’s the latest example of tech giants teaming up with the nuclear industry in an effort to meet the vast energy needs of data centers.
Google will commit early-stage development capital to the three projects, although the exact terms of the deal remain private. Each site will generate at least 600 megawatts of power capacity, and Google will have the option to buy the power once the sites are up and running. The proposed locations remain private, but Elementl said Google’s funding will be used for things like site permitting, securing interconnection rights to the transmission system, contract negotiations and other early-stage matters.
“Google is committed to catalyzing projects that strengthen the power grids where we operate, and advanced nuclear technology provides reliable, baseload, 24/7 energy,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google.
“Our collaboration with Elementl Power enhances our ability to move at the speed required to meet this moment of AI and American innovation,” she added.
Elementl Power, which was founded in 2022 as a nuclear power project developer, hasn’t yet built any sites.
The company is currently technology agnostic, meaning it hasn’t yet chosen what type of reactor it will use at its sites. Rather, when the company is ready to begin construction it will choose the reactor technology that’s furthest along in development.
“Innovative partnerships like this are necessary to mobilize the capital required to build new nuclear projects, which are critical to deliver safe, affordable and clean baseload power and help companies advance their long-term net zero goals,” said Chris Colbert, Elementl Power’s chairman and CEO. Colbert was previously CFO, COO and chief strategy officer at NuScale Power, which is developing small modular reactors.
Colbert added that once the projects reach a final investment stage Elementl will raise capital from other sources – for example infrastructure funds – to actually build the projects. The company is aiming to add 10 gigawatts of nuclear to the grid by 2035.
In October, Google teamed up with small modular reactor company Kairos Power, pledging to buy power from the company’s fleet of reactors. At the time, Google said the first reactor would enter service by 2030, with more coming online through 2035.
Earlier this year, China’s AI startup DeepSeek prompted concerns that the improved efficiency of emerging AI models may reduce the need to invest in the build out new power sources to support data centers. However, tech leaders such as Amazon and Nvidia have since said the need for baseload power is continuing to grow at a quick pace.
Tesla has opened orders for the Model Y Long Range RWD for $45,000 in the US. It’s the new entry-level Model Y following the design refresh earlier this year.
Since launching the updated Model Y earlier this year, Tesla has only offered the best-selling electric SUV in a single Long-Range AWD configuration.
First, it was as a fully-loaded $60,000 Launch Edition, and last month, it started deliveries of the regular Model Y AWD starting at $49,000.
Now, the automaker is starting to take orders for the new Model Y Long Range RWD
The new trim starts at $44,990 and enables 357 miles of range – an extra 30 miles over the AWD version.
However, due to its single motor powertrain, the lower-priced version is slightly slower with a 0-60 mph acceleration in 5.4 seconds rather than 4.6 seconds.
The automaker says that deliveries of the new version will start in the US in the next 3 to 5 weeks. It launched the new Model Y RWD in Europe weeks ago.
Tesla also offers a Standard Range RWD in Europe and China for even cheaper, and deliveries have already started in China.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla appears to have waited to open orders for the Model Y RWD in the US to optimize demand for the Long Range AWD.
But now it needs a cheaper model to sustain demand at the current production rate.
In the coming weeks, it will start building a mix of RWD and AWD in Fremont and Austin to
Interestingly, Tesla currently only offers the subsidized 1.99% financing rate on the Model Y Long Range AWD. I would assume that Tesla plans to take advantage of the boost in demand that the cheaper model will create.
However, US buyers probably won’t have to wait more than a few weeks before Tesla starts to offer lower interest rates on all versions, like it already does in Europe and China.
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On today’s thrilling episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got some of the highlights of the 2025 ACT Expo, including the all-electric Windrose and Mack Pioneer Class 8s trucks, a hydrogen fuel sell [sic] from Honda, a fun charging surprise, and – after an eight year wait – we finally get a ride in the all-new (in 2017) Tesla Semi!
ACT Expo is North America’s premier clean truck and transport trade show – and for 2025 it was bigger than ever, with more exhibitors and more, more capable battery electric vehicles than ever. The downsides? NACFE have scored with their “messy middle” messaging, and the return of “clean diesel” talking points. We’ve got a brief rundown and links to all the details, below.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
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