Close Menu
  • Coins
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Altcoins
    • NFT
  • Blockchain
  • DeFi
  • Metaverse
  • Regulation
  • Other
    • Exchanges
    • ICO
    • GameFi
    • Mining
    • Legal
  • MarketCap
What's Hot

$3.2B Worth of ETH Pours Into Liquid Staking in Just 14 Weeks

25/08/2025

SBI Group, Chainlink partner to bring crypto tech to Asia’s finance scene

25/08/2025

As September looms, is Ethereum due a seasonable pullback?

25/08/2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • Back to NBTC homepage
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
X (Twitter) Telegram Facebook LinkedIn RSS
NBTC News
  • Coins
    1. Bitcoin
    2. Ethereum
    3. Altcoins
    4. NFT
    5. View All

    Price Breaks All-Time High Record Again – Here’s What We Know

    04/08/2025

    Bitcoin Switzerland? El Salvador to Host First Fully Native Bitcoin Capital Markets

    04/08/2025

    Bitcoin Breaks $119K, but XLM and HBAR Aren’t Impressed by Its Meager Percentage Gain

    04/08/2025

    High-Stakes Consolidation Could Define Q3 Trend

    04/08/2025

    $3.2B Worth of ETH Pours Into Liquid Staking in Just 14 Weeks

    25/08/2025

    As September looms, is Ethereum due a seasonable pullback?

    25/08/2025

    Vitalik Buterin uses FOCIL framework to reaffirm Ethereum’s impartiality

    25/08/2025

    Ethereum approaches ‘Danger Zone,’ yet on-chain metrics shine

    25/08/2025

    The Sui Ecosystem’s Top 3 Altcoin Performers

    29/07/2025

    Floki Launches $69000 Guerrilla Marketing Challenge With FlokiUltras3

    28/07/2025

    Crypto Beast denies role in Altcoin (ALT) crash rug pull, blames snipers

    28/07/2025

    $1.6 Billion XRP Surge: Here’s What’s Unfolding

    28/07/2025

    Telegram NFT Gifts Hit $57M in Sales as Users Rush In

    24/08/2025

    NFT sales drop 25% to $134m, CryptoPunks plunge 59%

    23/08/2025

    Ethereum Rules With $56.57M Sales, Solana and Polygon Compete

    23/08/2025

    Defunct NFT lender Parallel Finance charges users $500 to withdraw assets

    22/08/2025

    $3.2B Worth of ETH Pours Into Liquid Staking in Just 14 Weeks

    25/08/2025

    SBI Group, Chainlink partner to bring crypto tech to Asia’s finance scene

    25/08/2025

    As September looms, is Ethereum due a seasonable pullback?

    25/08/2025

    Trump family went pro-crypto after Biden ‘weaponized banks’ — WSJ

    25/08/2025
  • Blockchain

    Optimism Taps Flashbots to Supercharge OP Stack Sequencing

    25/08/2025

    Block Street brings $10m liquidity push for tokenized stocks on BNB Chain

    25/08/2025

    Users Can Connect to Uniswap, Aave, Opensea via Trezor Suite

    25/08/2025

    Unlocking Private Investments for Everyone

    25/08/2025

    State Street Expands Custody to Tokenized Debt on JPMorgan’s Blockchain Platform

    24/08/2025
  • DeFi

    Meta Pool Proposes 4-Month Extension of MPIP-15 Buyback Program

    25/08/2025

    Top DEX Platforms Clear $425 Billion in a Monthlong Frenzy of Onchain Trading

    25/08/2025

    USDT Transfer to Aave: Unveiling Massive Market Implications

    25/08/2025

    US Treasury’s DeFi ID plan is ‘like putting cameras in every living room’

    25/08/2025

    Layer-1 leaders poised for a post-Biden comeback

    25/08/2025
  • Metaverse

    Meta Breaks Up AI Lab as Part of Superintelligence Push

    20/08/2025

    The Sandbox Game Maker: Unleashing Revolutionary Metaverse Experiences

    07/08/2025

    Where Has the Metaverse Gone? Examining a Failed (and Costly) Trend

    01/08/2025

    From Metaverse to Machine Learning, Inside Meta’s $72 Billion AI Gamble

    31/07/2025

    AntVerse Integrates Terminus to Transform AI-Powered Metaverse with Web3 Payments

    25/07/2025
  • Regulation

    SBI Group, Chainlink partner to bring crypto tech to Asia’s finance scene

    25/08/2025

    Trump family went pro-crypto after Biden ‘weaponized banks’ — WSJ

    25/08/2025

    $400T TradFi market is a huge runway for tokenized RWAs: Animoca

    25/08/2025

    after a presumed presidential pardon, he moves capital into stem cell biotech

    25/08/2025

    Japan’s Finance Minister Says Crypto Assets Can be Part of Diversified Portfolio

    25/08/2025
  • Other
    1. Exchanges
    2. ICO
    3. GameFi
    4. Mining
    5. Legal
    6. View All

    OKX Introduces PI/USDC Pair—Will It Boost Liquidity or Fuel Further Decline?

    25/08/2025

    Binance Futures Announces Listing of a New Altcoin Trading Pair! Here Are the Details

    25/08/2025

    Unlocking Seamless Trading on Solana’s Platform

    25/08/2025

    Unlock Exciting New Trading Opportunities

    25/08/2025

    ICO for bitcoin yield farming chain Corn screams we’re so back

    22/01/2025

    Why 2025 Will See the Comeback of the ICO

    26/12/2024

    ‘Some Studios Won’t Survive’ as AI Takes Over Gaming, Says Google Cloud Exec

    24/08/2025

    Crypto Gaming Handheld Shipments Delayed Over ‘Excessive’ Import Duties

    22/08/2025

    Google Unveils Pixel 10 Lineup With AI Features, New Watch and Earbuds

    21/08/2025

    Immutable & Koin Games Unveil Fast-Paced, Collector-Driven Project O

    20/08/2025

    Merged mining is essential to preserving Bitcoin’s decentralization

    25/08/2025

    Bitcoin Mining Faces ‘Incredibly Difficult’ Market as Power Becomes the Real Currency

    24/08/2025

    Bitcoin miner Foundry hits 0.07% jackpot mining eight consecutive BTC blocks

    23/08/2025

    Nasdaq-listed Bitdeer unveiled plans to expand its U.S. crypto mining rig manufacturing operations

    21/08/2025

    EminiFX founder to pay $228M in Ponzi scheme ruling

    25/08/2025

    US Judge drops Hayden Davis freezing order, frees up 500M LIBRA tokens

    25/08/2025

    Crucial New Measures Target Russian Networks

    25/08/2025

    Market Structure Bill Will Be Before President Trump by Thanksgiving, Says Sen. Lummis

    25/08/2025

    $3.2B Worth of ETH Pours Into Liquid Staking in Just 14 Weeks

    25/08/2025

    SBI Group, Chainlink partner to bring crypto tech to Asia’s finance scene

    25/08/2025

    As September looms, is Ethereum due a seasonable pullback?

    25/08/2025

    Trump family went pro-crypto after Biden ‘weaponized banks’ — WSJ

    25/08/2025
  • MarketCap
NBTC News
Home»Mining»How Ethiopia’s Low Energy Costs Allow BIT Mining to Recycle its Bitcoin Machines
Mining

How Ethiopia’s Low Energy Costs Allow BIT Mining to Recycle its Bitcoin Machines

NBTCBy NBTC07/01/2025No Comments5 Mins Read
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


Landlocked between six different neighbors in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has approximately 120 million inhabitants, making it the second most populous nation on the continent, and a GDP of $163 billion, which puts it in the same economic league as Ukraine, Morocco, Slovakia or Kuwait.

However, the country has also suffered from a bloody civil war, with several regions still under the control of anti-government forces, like the ethno-nationalist Amhara militia Fano.

But that hasn’t prevented Chinese bitcoin (BTC) mining company BIT Mining (BTCM) from expanding its operations — until now confined to Akron, Ohio — into Ethiopia by signing a $14 million deal to acquire facilities worth 51 megawatts (MW) and almost 18,000 bitcoin mining rigs in the country.

In fact, for Dr. Youwei Yang, chief economist at BIT Mining, Ethiopia’s ultra-low electricity costs provide the firm with a unique opportunity to extend the shelf life of its bitcoin mining rigs which, due to the industry’s extreme competitiveness, tend to become obsolete in the U.S. after roughly two or two-and-a-half years of activity, he said.

“The price of electricity is maybe 70% higher in Ohio than in Ethiopia, sometimes almost double, so it can only run very advanced ASICs, like the newest or second newest generations,” Yang told CoinDesk in an interview. “Now we can just move older generation machines into Ethiopia.”

It’s a big deal, because aside from mining litecoin (LTC) and dogecoin (DOGE), BIT Mining is mainly in the hosting business, meaning that it operates mining facilities for the sake of various clients. State-of-the-art mining rigs don’t come cheap (a single machine fetching anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 for retail buyers) and investors are naturally reluctant to send such expensive pieces of machinery to war-torn jurisdictions.

The pitch, then, is to install the newer rigs in the U.S. and send out the aging ones to Ethiopia. That creates a positive feedback loop, because now investors can extract greater returns from their machines than if BIT Mining restricted itself to operating in the U.S. That, in turn, attracts more capital, Yang said.

“We can get at least two extra years by moving the rigs to Ethiopia, and then maybe after that, they’re completely done,” Yang said.

Mining bitcoin in Ethiopia

But why Ethiopia specifically? For one thing, the country’s electric standard is similar to China’s, which allows BIT Mining to leverage the expertise of its engineering team and redeploy some of the electric equipment it previously used in the Middle Kingdom before the bitcoin mining ban.

Ethiopia also enjoys an abundance of hydroelectric power, some of it thanks to Chinese investments, which have totalled $8.5 billion across more than 3,000 projects in recent years. For example, China helped fund the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD); once completed, it will be the largest dam in Africa and generate over 5,000 MW.

Not all of Ethiopia’s electric output has been put to use yet, however, and that has created a window of opportunity for bitcoin miners, especially since the Ethiopian government has been supportive of the mining industry. In fact, the country is home to 1.5% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate, according to Hashrate Index, meaning that it contributes about as much to the network as Norway.

That’s despite the fact that the Ethiopian federal government has a shaky control over the country’s overall territory. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians were killed in the government’s war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front between 2020 and 2022, and the state only just signed a peace treaty in December with the Oromo Liberation Army, which it had been fighting in some form or other since the 1970s.

When asked whether BIT Mining had concerns about the social unrest in the country, Yang replied that the firm had been “studying, researching and also visiting [Ethiopia] several times, just [ascertain] that it’s a stable place.” The decision was made to purchase a facility instead of building it from scratch to avoid any unforeseen trouble, he said.

Even so, it was a challenge convincing BIT Mining employees to move to Ethiopia from their previous domiciles in the U.S. or China, Yang said.

“People obviously like to live and work in richer and safer countries,” he said. While a third of the facility’s operating team are foreign right now, the team will be composed of mostly locals down the line, he said.

In the meantime, the company is on the lookout for new investments in the country — be them energy infrastructure projects, data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) purposes, or other bitcoin mining facilities.

“There’s plenty of opportunities in Ethiopia,” Yang said. “The AI thing… We’ve been studying it for the last six to nine months. We have the power. We have the people. We have the ability to do it. But [the whole process] is very capital heavy. Construction in the U.S. is a lot more expensive, so it’s very hard to do a pilot experiment, but it’s a lot easier to [try one] in Ethiopia.”

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
NBTC

Related Posts

Merged mining is essential to preserving Bitcoin’s decentralization

25/08/2025

Bitcoin Mining Faces ‘Incredibly Difficult’ Market as Power Becomes the Real Currency

24/08/2025

Bitcoin miner Foundry hits 0.07% jackpot mining eight consecutive BTC blocks

23/08/2025

Nasdaq-listed Bitdeer unveiled plans to expand its U.S. crypto mining rig manufacturing operations

21/08/2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Top Posts
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Your source for the serious news. This website is crafted specifically to for crazy and hot cryptonews. Visit our main page for more tons of news.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn RSS
Top Insights

$3.2B Worth of ETH Pours Into Liquid Staking in Just 14 Weeks

25/08/2025

SBI Group, Chainlink partner to bring crypto tech to Asia’s finance scene

25/08/2025

As September looms, is Ethereum due a seasonable pullback?

25/08/2025
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.