In order to establish green crypto mining in the Himalayan country, Bhutan’s investment arm and the Nasdaq-listed firm Bitdeer Technologies Group intend to recruit investors for a fund worth up to $500 million.
According to a joint statement released on Wednesday, fund raising aimed at institutional investors will start at the end of May with the intention of setting up carbon-free digital mining that uses Bhutan’s abundant hydroelectric power.
Bhutan will initially concentrate on Bitcoin as mining is the least hazardous option for the country to take advantage of cryptocurrency potential, according to Ujjwal Deep Dahal, the chief executive officer of the investment arm, Druk Holding & Investments.
“It’s important for us to look at assets that are low volume, high value, or digital assets for that matter, and try to position ourselves in a way that we can be competitive globally over time to build our economy,” Dahal stated.
Forest-laden Bhutan, a nation of around 777,000 people located between China and India, has long attempted to diversify its hydropower-dependent economy. Under what it terms a “future-facing” approach, Druk oversees the government’s investments in both conventional sectors including stocks, bonds, technology, energy, and real estate as well as crypto mining and investment.
Bitcoin miners compete to use power-hungry computing rigs to solve challenging mathematical puzzles in order to increase the supply of the token. This caused criticism of the environmental consequences of using filthy fuels to generate electricity.
Last year, a decline in the value of digital assets, rising energy prices, and more competition put a strain on the mining industry. In 2023, things have gotten better as the cryptocurrency market has recovered.
Bitdeer, a Chinese businessman Jihan Wu’s company with headquarters in Singapore and one of the major centres in Texas, is one of the leading cryptocurrency miners by computer power. Following the completion of a lengthy merger with a special purpose acquisition company, the company started trading on the Nasdaq last month.According to a regulatory filing, Bitdeer plans to establish a 100 megawatt operation in Bhutan, with construction planned to begin in the second quarter and end in July through September.
According to Bitdeer CEO Matt Linghui Kong, the organisation and Druk would both make investments in the planned new fund.
When Bitcoin was around $5,000, Druk began crypto mining under a “sandbox” strategy, according to Dahal. Additionally, it had some assets in the now-bankrupt US digital asset lenders BlockFi Inc. and Celsius Network LLC, but these investments made up a small portion of Druk’s portfolio and have since been “settled,” according to Dahal.
A crypto rise that peaked in 2021 during the pandemic era saw Bitcoin soar to a record high of roughly $69,000. In 2022, the biggest digital asset fell below $16,000, but it has since risen to roughly $28,500.
