Riot Purchased Massive BTC Mining Firm In Texas Worth $650 Million

Riot purchased massive Bitcoin mining company Whinstone Inc, in Texas for $650 million with goals to become the largest data center in the world so let’s read more in our latest Bitcoin news today.

Northern Data AG, the EU infrastructure company sold its Whinstone subsidiary to Riot Blockchain. Riot purchased Whinstone and its planned mining operations in Texas. According to the press release from Northern Data, the deal was worth $80 million with 12% shares of Riot that are worth above $570 million. The entire deal comes up to more than $650 million.

Northern Data bought Whinstone which operates its data centers back in 2019 and the plan was to create the biggest data center in North America and the biggest BTC mining facility in the world. The construction of the mining company sits upon 100 acres in Rockdale, Texas, and was set to be finished by the end of 2020. As per the videos posted on Whinstone’s Facebook page, we can see that huge progress has been made despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic. According to Northern Data, the centers as already operational but it is unclear whether any BTC mining is taking place right now.

Northern Data also aims to use the proceeds from the sale and expand its “high-performance computing” sites across the world with the shares in Riot allowing it to participate in the growth of the BTC value potential. With the latest purchase, Riot got a leg up on the biggest US competitor Marathon and its stock price closed at $48 compared to Riot’s $46.26. Riot is not the only BTC mining company that is focused on Texas.

China-based BitMain is one of the biggest mining companies in the world with operations at the abandoned Alcoa aluminum plant right across the street from Whinstone’s operation. Layer 1 which is a new player backed by PayPal’s Peter Thiel, has a plant in West Texas and could soon be joined by mining company Argo Blockchain.

Texas became the popular destination stateside due to the light regulations and the cheap electricity. In addition to the crude oil, The Lone Star State has major quantities of natural gas which is why it can tap into wind energy.