The Japanese corporate giants will be renting mining capacity at the facility in Rockdale, Texas, recently put into construction by Whinstone Inc., according to Bloomberg sources. The firms are to begin mining «within coming months,» the report says, adding that the firms involved would not comment when asked.
Potentially the world’s biggest bitcoin mine is said to have signed up two top corporate customers, SBI Holdings and GMO.
As CoinDesk reported in November, when the facility gets up and running it will likely be the biggest bitcoin mine in the world, starting at 300 megawatts and expanding to 1 gigawatt by the end of 2020.
That puts the rival mine being built by Bitmain – also in Rockdale and touted as the biggest in the world – in the shade. That’s planned to start at a capacity of 25-50 MW and possibly expand to 300 MW.
Internet giant GMO was also said to have been involved in setting up the Rockdale facility, as per CoinDesk’s earlier report. In November, Whinstone estimated the data center will cost $150 million to build and fit out. The initial 300 MW of power was expected to come online in the first quarter, with 1 GW planned to be achieved late in the year.
Soon after Whinstone broke ground on its Texas project the company was acquired by Germany-based Northern Bitcoin, which already runs a bitcoin mine in Norway that harnesses renewable power. Similarly, Texas may have been chosen as the site for this major venture in part due to its availability of cheap wind power, according to Bloomberg.
SEC Charges Man Behind Alleged Crypto Mining Scam
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed suit against Donald G. Blakstad for scamming investors partly through an allegedly fraudulent crypto mining operation.In a filing Jan 8, the SEC alleged Blackstad, 60, bilked over $3.5 million from investors of three separate firms: an oil and gas company; a vehicle parts holding company; and “Energy Sources International” (ESI), a purported cryptocurrency mining company whose Las Vegas datacenter has only one employee: Blakstad.
The crypto mining operation specifically took in some $550,000 from five separate investors, all of whom were told by Blakstad their capital would cover equipment costs. However, the SEC alleges Blakstad instead used nearly half the cash for himself at casinos, restaurants and hotels.
The regulator further alleges Blakstad kept up the ruse by issuing each of the five investors $60,000 checks as returns on their investments.
Blakstad was previously charged in July in a separate insider trading scheme worth $6.2 million.
