beincrypto.com
Bitcoin miner Genesis Digital Assets (GDA) announced a $125 million round of equity funding to support aggressive expansion plans.
The funding round will be led by UK-based private equity fund Kingsway Capital. Focused on frontier emerging markets, Kingsway has over $2 billion in assets under management (AUM). GDA will use the capital to purchase equipment and build new data centers in the United States and Nordic region.
Genesis Digital Assets data center capacity is at over 150 megawatts, as of July 2021. This translates into a total hash rate exceeding 2.6 Exahashes (EH/s); more than 2.6% of the global Bitcoin mining hash rate. Within the next 12 months GDA expects another 5.5 EH/s to be online, with a capacity of over one gigawatt expected by 2023.
Kingway’s confidence
Manuel Stotz, CEO of Kingsway Capital, believes that Bitcoin is going to be the most important technology for financial inclusion of the global poor and unbanked. Because mining provides the security to make these transactions possible, he believes in the merit of the investment. Stotz also highlighted the experience of GDA, having been around for the past 8 years of mining’s 12 years existence.
“There’s no one else in the bitcoin mining industry that has this level of experience, and we’re incredibly excited to support their next wave of growth and long-term vision,” said Stotz who also joined GDA’s board of directors.
Crypto mining shift
Although cryptocurrency mining has a bad reputation for having a large carbon footprint, ESG efforts have started taking effect. When Elon Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin due to environmental concerns he cited a study from Cambridge University.
Now, the latest Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index shows a big shift in the cryptocurrency mining industry towards cleaner sources of energy. The crackdowns are forcing miners to move to other countries and seek more friendly energy sources.