coindesk.com
Colombia wants in on the bitcoin mining industry and its president is pitching the Caribbean coast as the sandbox.
President Gustavo Petro said in a X post Tuesday that the cities of Barranquilla, Santa Marta and Riohacha could become bitcoin mining hubs by tapping into the country's surplus clean energy, following the playbook that has worked for Venezuela and Paraguay over the past few years.
Petro called it "an immense boost to the development of the Caribbean," and floated the idea of giving the Wayúu community, Colombia's largest Indigenous group based on the same coast, co-ownership of the project.
A 2024 World Bank report found Colombia generates as much as 75% of its electricity from renewable sources, more than twice the global average. The Caribbean coast in particular has wind and solar capacity that the country has barely tapped commercially.
Petro believes mining bitcoin with that idle electricity beats letting it go unused, with the side benefit of avoiding the fossil-fuel emissions concerns that have dogged the industry elsewhere.
His remarks were a direct response to an earlier X post from Luxor Technology's Alessandro Cecere, who flagged that Paraguay's share of global hashrate has zoomed to 4.3% on the back of cheap hydroelectric power from the Itaipu Dam.
The landlocked South American country is now the fourth-largest bitcoin mining jurisdiction in the world, behind only the U.S., Russia and China, per Hashrate Index data.
Paraguay's mining activities run on 100% renewable energy, anchored by Itaipu and two smaller hydro plants that generate roughly six times what its 7 million people consume.
Industrial miners initially flocked there in 2021-2022 when electricity could be locked in for around $0.03 per kilowatt-hour.
However, power costs have roughly doubled since, and steep deposit requirements from state utility ANDE have squeezed out smaller operators, but well-capitalized players like HIVE Digital and Penguin Group continue to expand.
The opening for emerging mining countries is also widening because of what is happening in the U.S.
CoinDesk reported in March that publicly listed American miners have been pivoting toward AI and high-performance computing, signing more than $70 billion in cumulative AI contracts and reducing their bitcoin treasuries to fund the transition.
As U.S. operators chase higher-margin AI work, the share of global hashrate is increasingly up for grabs by countries with cheaper electricity and friendlier governments.
Colombia ticks both boxes, however, moving from an X post to actual policy frameworks, mining licenses, and tariff agreements could prove to be a challenge.