Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the first national park in the world to run a Bitcoin (BTC) mine in an effort to protect its forests and wildlife. Cointelegraph spoke with Sébastien Gouspillou, CEO of Big Block Green Services, and the man who introduced Bitcoin mining to the park. Speaking via video call, Gouspillou said with a smile: “Bitcoin mining saved the park from bankruptcy.” Virunga is Africa's oldest protected park and a symbol of the continent's biodiversity. A report by journalist Adam Popescu, published in MIT Technology Review, explained that the region was …

Bitcoin mining stocks usually follow BTC’s price because it directly influences the company's earnings. These stocks were beaten down heavily in the last quarter of 2022, especially in the month of December. The downturn after FTX's collapse worsened with the bankruptcy filings of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin mining company, Core Scientific. During this time, other mining stocks, like Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) in the chart below, exhibited a weak correlation with Bitcoin’s price, suggesting that December’s downturn was probably overblown. The negative trend reversed at the start of 2023 as most mining stocks posted impressive gains. The Hashrate Index mining …

As Bitcoin (BTC) shows a minor bull run, the connected sub-ecosystems’ year-long struggle for survival has started to pay off. For starters, the Bitcoin mining community experienced a 50% increase in revenue — through mining rewards and transaction fees — in the first month of 2023. On Dec. 28, 2022, Bitcoin mining revenue dipped to $13.6 million for the first time since October 2020. This, coupled with rising energy prices amid geopolitical tensions, imposed tremendous financial pressure on the companies running mining operations – forcing a few to shut shop. As Bitcoin remains well-positioned for a steady recovery, the mining …

Bankrupt Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Core Scientific filed on Jan. 25 an emergency motion seeking to sell Bitmain coupons worth $6.6 million, according to court records. As per the filing, some conditions applied to the coupons make them useless for Core Scientific's business. Specifically, the coupons can "only be used to pay 30% of any new order of S19 Miners from Bitmain, and cannot be exchanged with Bitmain for cash." Additionally, the coupons are limited to S19 models, which provides a lower hash rate output compared to Bitmain's recent models. "The Debtors do not believe that utilizing their liquidity to …

Investors of crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain have filed a class action lawsuit accusing the miner of making untrue statements and omitting key information during its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. A newly filed lawsuit on Jan. 26 is aimed at Argo and several of its executives and board members. It claims the firm failed to disclose how susceptible it was to capital constraints, electricity costs and network difficulties. "The Offering Documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading," …

Canada-based Bitcoin (BTC) miner Hut 8 Mining Corporation has ramped up its ongoing fight with its power supplier for one of its mining sites, filing a lawsuit in a Canadian court. Hut 8 said on Jan. 26 it filed a Statement of Claim in the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario against Validus Power, an energy supplier for a Hut 8 mining facility in North Bay, Ontario. The firms have been in an ongoing dispute since early November 2022 due to what Hut 8 alleges is a failure by Validus to “meet its contractual obligations” for the power purchase agreement …

Bitcoin (BTC) is seeing new records in network activity as volatility sends BTC price action to fresh five-month highs. Data from resources including MiningPoolStats confirms that Bitcoin’s hash rate hit new all-time highs on Jan. 26. Hash rate passes 300 EH/s threshold In another example of Bitcoin’s blitz recovery from the pits of post-FTX woes, network hashing power is now bigger than ever. Hash rate, which is an expression of the processing power dedicated to the network by miners, is currently at 321 exahashes per second (EH/s), according to MiningPoolStats raw data. Despite being only an estimate and not possible …

A Bitcoin (BTC) mining project that taps into clean, stranded and excess hydro energy in Malawi has picked up steam. The company behind the project, Gridless, shared that there are now “1600 families connected to this remote hydro mini-grid in the mountains of southern Malawi.” 1600 families connected to this remote hydro minigrid in the mountains of southern Malawi. They have 50kW of stranded energy that we are testing out as a new Bitcoin mining site. Videos for context. Still working on venting, wiring, etc. pic.twitter.com/Sxf8ABGPWH — Gridless (@GridlessCompute) January 21, 2023 The project exploits 50 Kilowatt (kW) of stranded …

Digital asset infrastructure company Blockstream has raised $125 million to finance its Bitcoin (BTC) mining colocation services, underscoring heightened demand for its institutional hosting services amid the bear market. The $125 million raise was financed by convertible note and a secured loan, Blockstream announced on Jan. 24. Venture capital firm Kingsway Capital led the convertible note raise, with additional participation from Fulgur Ventures. Cohen & Cohen Capital Markets, part of J.V.B. Financial Group, advised Blockstream on the deal. The funding will enable Blockstream to expand mining capacity for institutional hosting customers — a segment the company said was “resilient” in …

Bankrupt crypto lending firm BlockFi has plans to sell off $160 million in loans backed by around 68,000 Bitcoin mining machines as part of bankruptcy proceedings, according to reports. In a Bloomberg report on Jan. 24, two people “familiar with the matter” claim that BlockFi started the process of selling off the loans last year. The crypto lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Nov. 2022, citing its significant exposure to the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX for its downfall. However, some of these loans have already defaulted since then and could be undercollateralized given the decline in the price of …

Bitcoin’s mining industry has been relatively stable compared to the bearish price action and the tumultuous fallout of exchanges and lending companies. The network’s hashrate dipped slightly toward the end of 2022, primarily due to an unprecedented blizzard in the U.S., and has since recovered strongly to surpass its previous peak above 270 EH/s. It was particularly encouraging to see that the hashrate holding well above summer 2022 lows, despite the aftermath of FTX collapse. However, despite the recent robustness in a variety of metrics, the mining industry faces many challenges, which will likely restrict its growth moving forward. The …

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the last week of January in fine form after sealing its highest weekly close in five months. Despite opposition, the largest cryptocurrency is holding on to its newfound strength and continues to surprise market participants. This is no mean feat — market sentiment has plenty to spook it and initiate a rethink among investors. Macro conditions remain uncertain, while within Bitcoin, research has highlighted whales on exchanges potentially moving prices artificially with huge amounts of liquidity. Nonetheless, Bitcoin has seen its most impressive gains percentage-wise in over a year, and hopes remain that the good times will …