Tether to use renewable energy for Bitcoin mining in Uruguay

Tether disclosed its plans to use Uruguay's renewable energy for Bitcoin mining, which is extremely power intensive in nature

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Published: May 31, 2023 06:55:39 PM IST

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Stablecoin firm Tether has announced that it will set up a Bitcoin mining operation in Uruguay. The company will do so using renewable energy as it plans to diversify its revenue mix for supporting the USDT stablecoin.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Tether said that it plans on starting a mining arm in the nation which will be “in collaboration with a local licensed company”. The stablecoin issuer claimed that the venture will invest resources in renewable energy production.

Notably, this will mark the enterprise’s first foray into the energy sector.

“By harnessing the power of Bitcoin and Uruguay’s renewable energy capabilities, Tether is leading the way in sustainable and responsible Bitcoin mining," said Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer.

“Our unwavering commitment to renewable energy ensures that every Bitcoin we mine leaves a minimal ecological footprint while upholding the security and integrity of the Bitcoin network", he added.

The process of Bitcoin mining is extremely power intensive and relies on a distributed network of computers across the globe in order to verify that the transactions are legitimate. The procedure is also responsible for releasing new coins into circulation.

Tether is known well and wide for issuing the USDT stablecoin, also called Tether as a namesake of the parent company. USDT currently acts as the quoted currency in some of the most popular crypto trading pairs due to its 1:1 value ratio with the value of the USD.

Speaking of USDT’s peg to the USD, Tether had previously held most of these underlying assets in commercial papers which is a less liquid form of corporate debt, but recently replaced all of them with the US Treasury bills.

Tether is also hunting for “experts in the area” for backing this expansion into the renewable energy space, and cited that more than 98 percent of Uruguay’s electricity generating capacity is from renewables- wind and hydropower mainly, as per the US International Trade Administration.

The company even committed to regularly allocate up to 15 percent of its net profits for purchasing Bitcoin and claimed to hold roughly $1.5 billion in Bitcoin as of the first quarter of 2023.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash