Tether Invests in Startup to Launch Bitcoin Mining Facility in El Salvador

In a $250 million funding round by Volcano Energy, a startup focused on establishing a Bitcoin mining facility in El Salvador, Tether has joined as an investor.

Tether Invests in Bitcoin Mining Startup in El Salvador

On the evening of June 5, Tether—the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT—announced its participation in the first funding round of Volcano Energy, as confirmed by CTO Paolo Ardoino to The Block.

However, it remains unclear whether the full funding amount has been secured, as Volcano Energy declined to comment. The project aims to raise $1 billion for its mining operations.

Ardoino clarified:

"Tether is one of the investors, but our investment in Volcano Energy is limited. The funds for this project come from our surplus reserves and are not related to the reserves backing our issued tokens. Surplus reserves represent the company's excess profits, which totaled $2.5 billion at the end of Q1 2023."

Volcano Energy is co-led by Josue Lopez, a 23-year-old Bitcoin advocate from El Salvador who serves as CEO, and Max Keiser, who acts as chairman and advisor to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.

The planned Bitcoin mining facility is expected to have a total capacity of 241 megawatts (MW), including 169 MW from photovoltaic solar power and 72 MW from wind energy, located in Metapan, a municipality in the Santa Ana department of El Salvador. This capacity is projected to generate computing power of over 1.3 EH/s (exahashes per second), where one EH/s equals one million trillion hashes per second.

"We are excited to be pioneers in renewable energy in El Salvador as both an investor and advisor. This investment continues Tether's journey in diversifying its ecosystem."

The announcement comes a week after Tether revealed plans to accumulate Bitcoin through a mining operation in Uruguay. Last month, Tether also stated it would allocate 15% of its monthly profits towards buying additional Bitcoin. Furthermore, Tether has recently invested in CityPay.io, a Georgia-based payment processing company. Just a few days ago, Tether surpassed a market capitalization of $83.2 billion, marking a significant milestone in its long development journey.