stable coins
By Dan Saada
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Why Tether Wants Mining Rigs. Tether's been around since 2014. It's the biggest stablecoin by market cap, and it's made a…
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What Modular Mining Actually Means. Modular mining hardware isn't some fancy buzzword. It's basically plug-and-play rigs that fit into…
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What It Means for the Mining Sector. Stablecoin issuers getting into mining is pretty new. Circle hasn't done it. Paxos hasn't done it.
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Tether just placed another order with Canaan. The stablecoin issuer wants modular mining hardware to build out what it's calling data center-style Bitcoin infrastructure.
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The deal marks a deeper push by Tether into physical mining operations, not just issuing USDT tokens. Canaan didn't say how much the order's worth or when the rigs ship.
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Canaan makes ASIC miners. Modular ones, specifically. That means Tether can scale up or down without ripping out entire server farms.
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Tether's been around since 2014. It's the biggest stablecoin by market cap, and it's made a fortune on interest from the reserves it holds. But the company's been branching out.
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Mining rigs give Tether optionality. If Bitcoin prices tank, it can mine at cost and hold. If prices surge, it can sell into strength.
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Canaan's been in the mining game since 2013. It went public on Nasdaq in 2019, right before the last big mining boom.
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The hardware order also fits into a broader trend. More companies are moving mining operations into data centers instead of warehouses full of loud, hot machines.
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Related: Banking Circle Grabs MiCA License, Joins Crowded Euro Stablecoin Race
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Neither Canaan nor Tether said when the rigs will be delivered or where they'll be deployed. No word on hashrate, either.
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What's not a guess is the direction. Tether's building out physical Bitcoin infrastructure, and it's doing it with Canaan's help.
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Stablecoin issuers getting into mining is pretty new. Circle hasn't done it. Paxos hasn't done it. But Tether's always been willing to take risks that others won't.
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Canaan benefits too. Landing a big customer like Tether helps stabilize revenue, especially when retail mining demand swings wildly with Bitcoin's price.
The Currency Analytics
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