A new week concludes for the dynamic world of digital currencies and this time with good news for the price of BTC.
The price of Bitcoin is approaching 30K again while the mining business takes new steps in its unification with AI. Along with this AI news, other notable events also occurred that translate into advances in the mining industry. It was learned that the giant Marathon firm has Fidelity as custodian of its funds. Additionally, Celsius resumed mining activities several months after filing for bankruptcy.
This week, the biggest news was the rapprochement between AI and Bitcoin mining in a Texas data center. However, it was not the only news of interest included in this mining summary.
AI and Digital Mining Meet in Texas Data Center
Applied Digital, a blockchain infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) provider, launched its new data center and emulates Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain. This installation marks the company’s third blockchain hosting installation in North America. It will also provide a planned total of 480 MW of hosting capacity.
For its part, Riot Blockchain has a 1 GW facility in the same state. Despite growing mining capacity, Applied is moving away from mining and focusing its efforts on high-performance computing. This would be more profitable per unit of energy.
Despite this transition, investors are still not completely convinced, as Applied Digital shares fell 5.3% after the announcement. The shift towards high-performance services and AI may be a sign of changing trends in the cryptocurrency industry.
Part of Marathon’s BTC Will Be Custodied by Fidelity
Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital announced that it will use Fidelity Digital Asset as its second custodian for its digital assets. Historically, Marathon had held all of its bitcoins with a single provider. However, in order to diversify their treasury management strategy, they decided to add a new enterprise-level custodian.
The company plans to add more custodians in the future as they are generating over 1,000 BTC per month. In that sense, they believe that it is an opportune time to diversify the custody of their assets. Custody plays a key role in the world of cryptocurrencies and other markets. This allows companies to entrust their digital assets to third parties for their security and management.
This move comes after several custodians, including Fortress Trust, fell victim to cyberattacks that resulted in the theft of digital assets. The theft led Fortress Trust to seek a sale of the company to Ripple, a blockchain technology firm, although the transaction ultimately fell through.
Sazmining Opens Mining Center in Paraguay
Sazmining opened a new 100% renewable energy facility in Paraguay. This new facility will obtain its energy from the Itaipu dam, the largest in the country and the most expensive structure in the world.
Sazmining president Kent Halliburton said that Paraguay was selling 5 gigawatts of energy at a loss to Brazil due to its unique hydroelectric power generation. By purchasing excess energy from Itaipu, Bitcoin mining becomes a boost for Paraguay’s economy.
Halliburton explained that Sazmining gets all of its power from the dam, meaning the new facility is powered by 100% renewable energy. Although Texas is known as a strong Bitcoin mining sector, Halliburton believes that Paraguay could become “the new Texas.” The latter due to its excess energy. However, he noted that the infrastructure in Paraguay is still less developed in comparison.
By Leonardo Pérez
