Stronghold Digital Mining, a Bitcoin mining firm, has raised $105 million from two private equity securities funding rounds. This was disclosed in the firm’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
Stronghold To Use Funds To Recycle Waste Coal
The Pennsylvania-based firm is focused on converting waste coal into power which is then used to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Stronghold would use the newly acquired funds to finance more waste coal clean-up facilities, expand rehabilitation efforts in Pennsylvania, and purchase crypto mining hardware.
Through its power generation facility, the Scrubgrass Generation Plant, Stronghold converts waste coal into energy.
Scrubgrass, which is located on a 650-acre site in Venango County, Pennsylvania, produces and sells approximately 85 megawatts of electricity, enough for about 80,000 homes.
In Pennsylvania and many other regions around the world where waste, coal, and acid mine drainage (AMD) are some of the largest sources of pollution.
Stronghold wants to rehabilitate lands that have been devastated as a result of AMD.
AMD is a process in which rain or snow mixes with the sulfur in coal waste, allowing it to run into water systems and harm life in the water.
The co-chairman of Stronghold, Bill Spence in a statement spoke about the devastating impact of coal on the environment. According to him, coal fires have been causing havoc in Pennsylvania for years.
Spence also noted that Stronghold uses best-in-class mining techniques to remedy the impact of the previous centuries’ coal mining activities.
Stronghold has reclaimed 1,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania in a bid to further its objective of remedying the impacts of crypto mining.
The firm aims to have more than 28,000 cryptocurrency miners in operation by 2022 and is currently working on upgrading with new facilities.
Rising Concerns On Bitcoin Mining
Stronghold’s funding comes at a time where Bitcoin has received increased public scrutiny due to its high carbon footprint.
The Bitcoin community started becoming more environmentally conscious of Bitcoin when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his company would no longer accept the asset as a payment method.
Musk who cited environmental concerns as his reasons later said Tesla would resume payments once the mining industry reached 50% clean energy usage.
Senator Elizabeth Warren also recently publicly criticized Bitcoin for its environmental impact. She also called for the crackdown of the asset terming it as an environmentally wasteful cryptocurrency.
Environmental groups are now also more conscious of Bitcoin's high energy consumption. Last month, Greenpeace USA stopped accepting Bitcoin donations over the cryptocurrency's carbon footprint.
The controversy over the carbon footprint of Bitcoin has also led to the creation of a Bitcoin mining council. The council aims to counter the misinformation about Bitcoin and find solutions.
bitcoinexchangeguide.com
23 June 2021 14:16, UTC