Hive Digital Eyes Paraguay As Next Bitcoin Mining Hub

Paraguay is continuing its push to be a crypto hotspot as Canadian mining giant Hive Digital announced Monday that it plans to open a Bitcoin operation in the South American country. 

In a Monday announcement, the company said that it had met with the country’s President Santiago Peña for the planned project: a 100-megawatt operation using green energy from the Itaipu hydroelectric dam.

Hive said the operation would add 6.5 exahashes per second to their mining operations and generate over $100 million in revenue for state power company Ande over the next three years. An exahash is a measure of a Bitcoin mining machine’s processing power.

The project is still subject to due diligence, board approval, and regulatory approvals, according to the announcement, but a location for the operation has already been identified. 

“We are confident that this venture can deliver healthy returns and drive long-term value, fostering economic growth and innovation in the region,” Hive’s executive chairman Frank Holmes said. 

Miners are necessary to keep the Bitcoin network running and to mint new digital coins. Once an activity that could be performed on a PC, the process today needs heavy machinery and is therefore extremely energy intensive. A Bitcoin mining operation typically consists of huge warehouses full of expensive custom-built machines. 

Hive is a public company and one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin miners. It trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, the Nasdaq, and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and has operations in Iceland, Sweden, and Canada. 

Paraguay has become an increasingly attractive country for crypto businesses: miners are flocking to the country for its cheap—and green—electricity, and lawmakers want to make it a crypto hub. 

President Peña has previously said he wants the South American country—which neighbors Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia—to be a “center of integration” between Latin America and the rest of the world. 

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.