Tether plans further Bitcoin mining expansion in South America with Adecoagro tie up

Tether has unveiled its latest planned Bitcoin mining expansion as the stablecoin issuer continues to diversify its operations. The firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil-based renewable power provider Adecoagro to mine bitcoin using its surplus energy.

“In addition to monetizing surplus energy, Adecoagro recognizes that Bitcoin may become a new source of long-term value, like its farmland assets, and plans to use this mining project to initiate certain strategic exposure to Bitcoin in its balance sheet,” Adecoagro said Thursday in a statement. 

Adecoagro says it generates more than 230 megawatts of electrical generation capacity from renewable sources across South America. "This project opens the door to stabilizing a portion of the energy we currently sell on the spot market, locking in pricing, while also gaining exposure to the upside potential of bitcoin," Adecoagro CEO Mariano Bosch said. 

Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin by volume and market capitalization, USDT, has redeployed a significant portion of its profits into various industries, including peer-to-peer communications, artificial intelligence, and bitcoin mining, particularly since CEO Paolo Ardoino stepped up as chief executive in 2023.

By some estimates, Tether is one of the most profitable companies by employee count in operation. The firm generates billions of dollars of profit on its $149 billion worth of stablecoin reserves, 80.99% of which are U.S. Treasuries, making it a larger Treasury bond holder than the United Arab Emirates and Germany, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Tether began mining operations in Uruguay and Paraguay in 2023, leveraging the two countries’ notable renewable energy capacity. It has also backed El Salvador’s “volcano-mining” efforts and taken a stake in firms like Bitdeer and Northern Data. The firm has also contributed to tools like the Bitcoin Mining Operating System, a modular platform designed to manage mining infrastructure.

Adecoagro’s interest in gaining “strategic exposure” to Bitcoin comes at a time when an increasing number of firms are looking to add the asset to their balance sheet. The Trump family-backed American Bitcoin, for instance, partnered with Hut 8 on an effort to develop a so-called Bitcoin treasury explicitly through mining Bitcoin block rewards.

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