The initial capacity of SBI and GMO’s mining center will be 300 megawatts and it is expected to expand to 1 gigawatt by the end of 2020.
The Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings Inc. and internet corporation GMO Internet Group will mine the number one crypto. To mine Bitcoin, SBI and GMO will rent capacity of the world’s leading mining farm based in Rockdale, Texas. As Bloomberg has reported, the companies have agreed with Whinstone Inc., a subsidiary of Frankfurt-based Northern Bitcoin AG. Neither SBI nor GMO has commented on the announcement yet, but those familiar with the matter said that mining begins ‘within the coming months’.
It is notable that the new Northern Bitcoin center will initially launch at 300 megawatts. By the end of 2020, this capacity may reach 1 gigawatt. With this performance, Northern Bitcoin will surpass the current leading mining farm owned by the Chinese Bitmain. This facility was launched in October 2019, but its capacity was 50 megawatts. Therefore, Whinstone has pretty high chances to make rivalry for Bitmain.
SBI and GMO to Get Deeper in Crypto Industry
SBI Holdings seems to be optimistic about cryptos. Earlier, the corporation formed a capital and business alliance with Fukushima Bank. The ultimate goal of this partnership is to use Ripple’s MoneyTap app and increase profitability for financial institutions. Besides, the alliance aims at improving local customer assets and productivity of related companies.
However, the relationship between Ripple and SBI Holdings started earlier. In April 2019, we reported that Yoshitaka Kitao, the Representative Director, President, and CEO of SBI Holdings, joined the Ripple’s Board of Directors. Joining the company and replacing Takashi Okita, Kitao promised to do his best to promote Ripple and change the face of Japan’s payment system. Moreover, Kitao believes that by 2025, every Japanese bank will use XRP which powers Ripple’s solutions.
As for GMO Internet Group, the company has been under hot discussions a great number of times due to its cutting-edge projects that got the credit of the crypto society. The most outstanding of them are GMO’s mining chips that rapidly gain traction of miners.
Texas to Become a Crypto Hub
Japanese SBI and GMO are not the first to mine Bitcoin in Texas. The state has been luring crypto miners by cheap energy and renewable sources. Besides, there are lots of free areas that have been left after shutting down factories. These areas are good for developing new mining facilities.
Last year, wind-power generation accounted for more than 20% of Texas’ electricity. In 2020, it will overtake coal for the first time.
Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlown stated:
“Bitcoin is attracting more institutional investors and with the notion of limited supply and mass adoption – Bitcoin is winning this race.”
Many blockchain startups are aware of the benefits provided by Texas and try to use them. For example, Layer1 startup that got support from Digital Currency Group, is also planning to start mining in the state this year.
next