Stronghold Digital Mining has received more than $100 million in two private placements to support its BTC mining model.
Stronghold Digital Mining, situated in Pennsylvania, has successfully completed private equity capital offerings totalling $105 million.
The Scrubgrass Generation Plant in Venango County, according to a statement shared with Cointelegraph, turns waste coal into energy on a scale similar to “a large-scale hydropower plant,” which is then used to mine BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Stronghold recycles waste coal from coal mining operations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Stronghold’s power generation technologies enable the company to repair massive sections of land that have been ravaged by waste coal acid drainage (AMD).
AMD is a process in which rain or snow reacts with sulfur in coal waste, allowing it to enter water systems and endangering aquatic life. Stronghold intends to gift the repaired land to local people once the leftover coal has been removed.
According to the corporation, every BTC mined results in the destruction of 200 tonnes of waste coal.
“Coal waste fires have been wreaking havoc in my home state of Pennsylvania for the last hundred years,” said Stronghold co-chairman, Bill Spence, adding:
“We employ 21st-century crypto mining techniques to remediate the impacts of 19th and 20th-century coal mining in some of the most environmentally neglected regions of the United States.”
– Bill Spence
Stronghold has already restored 1,000 acres of Pennsylvania land that it characterizes as “once-unusable” by collaborating with local environmental authorities.
The company’s production process produces fly ash, which may be utilized as a fertilizer in addition to eliminating and over 98 percent of mercury, NOx, and SO2 emissions.
Stronghold aims to have over 28,000 cryptocurrency miners operational by 2022, and is in talks to buy facilities with a total capacity of over 200 megawatts of power generation.
The boost comes as the Bitcoin community becomes more environmentally sensitive, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously changing course on the electric vehicle maker’s willingness to continue Bitcoin payments, citing the environmental impact of coal-powered mining.
Musk said earlier this month that Tesla would consider restarting support for BTC if the mining industry moved to be fueled by clean energy at least 50% of the time.
The controversy over the ecological footprint of Bitcoin’s creation has contributed to a heavy bear trend for publicly-listed North American mining stocks in recent months, which have experienced draw-downs of between roughly 50% and 60% since posting all-time highs.
Despite the broader crypto bearish trend showing few signs of slowing down, independent investment bank, Compass Point, has given Riot Blockchain (RIOT) and Marathon Digital (MARA) a buy rating — noting the firms are generating BTC at discounts of 62% and 70% compared to spot prices respectively.
The debate over Bitcoin’s environmental impact has contributed to a strong bear trend for publicly traded North American mining equities in recent months, which have lost between 50 and 60 percent of their value since reaching all-time highs.
Ignoring the fact that the broader crypto bearish trend is showing no signs of abating, Compass Point, an independent investment bank, has given Riot Blockchain (RIOT) and Marathon Digital (MARA) buy ratings, citing that the companies are generating BTC at discounts of 62 percent and 70 percent, respectively, particularly in comparison to spot prices.