Tether Invests $1B in El Salvador’s Bitcoin Mining Facility

Tether is investing $1 billion to build the world’s largest Bitcoin mining site in El Salvador. The site will tap into the country’s volcanic energy.

Tether is investing $1 billion in an effort to build the world’s largest Bitcoin mining site in El Salvador, the company announced on June 5. It stated that it had participated in the country’s first round of this billion-dollar effort and that it speaks to its focus on investing in renewable energy to support Bitcoin mining.

Volcanic Energy for Bitcoin Mining

The Bitcoin mining site taps into El Salvador’s volcanic energy, something the country’s officials have spoken about before. The site will generate 241 Megawatts of renewable energy in Metapan.

Tether stated that it would “bring its domain expertise in energy, hardware, and communications to build ‘Volcano Energy’” in addition to the funding.

Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer at Tether, said of the effort,

“We are excited to be among the initial pioneers of renewable energy in El Salvador as an equity investor and advisor. Volcano Energy represents one of the most ground-breaking and strategic initiatives we are investing in and we look forward to working alongside Josue Lopez and his team to make El Salvador a global force in renewable energy production. This investment continues Tether’s journey in diversifying its strategic ecosystem.”

Ardoino also said on Twitter that the potential of El Salvador was immense and called it a Bitcoin nation. He also emphasized that “the current size of…investment in Volcano Energy is contained, being well within its own excess reserves, so it’s not taken from the reserves backing the issued tokens.”

Tether Boosts Sustainable Bitcoin Mining Efforts

Tether seems to want to have a long-term, sustainable effort that supports mining. It’s a strong branching off from its main business, USDT, but renewable energy infrastructure for mining does seem like a play it’s doubling down on.

This switch to sustainable mining has been becoming more evident as the months have passed. Late last month, it announced that it would be investing resources into energy production and launching a sustainable Bitcoin mining operation in Uruguay.

El Salvador Is Making Headlines

Tether has shown support for El Salvador’s previous initiatives. Ardoino then said that he sometimes wished that

“European countries would be as forward looking to technology and financial independence as El Salvador.”

El Salvador has also been making changes to crypto regulation. In November last year, President Nayib Bukele ordered changes to stablecoin rules. This explicitly included it in a bid to make other assets more tolerated in the country.