Stablecoin Giant Tether Reveals Plans for Modular Bitcoin Mining Hardware

In brief

• Tether unveiled plans for modular Bitcoin mining systems that separate compute from power and cooling infrastructure.
• The company partnered with Nasdaq-listed Canaan Inc. and ACME Swisstech to develop the hardware.
• Operators can upgrade individual components without replacing entire mining machines, allowing independent optimization of each system element.

Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin, unveiled modular Bitcoin mining systems developed with Canaan Inc. and ACME Swisstech that separate compute from power and cooling components.

The new architecture addresses fundamental constraints in traditional mining hardware by allowing operators to optimize each component independently. It’s a model that Jack Dorsey’s Block is also working to further with its modular Proto Rig mining units, revealed last year.

“Most mining infrastructure is still built as sealed, fixed units, which makes it expensive to scale and inefficient to run,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in a statement. “Tether is revisioning that concept by deploying modular compute that can be tuned, upgraded, and cooled independently, so we can directly control cost, efficiency, and how these systems perform at scale.”

The industrial-scale design marks a departure from consumer mining equipment. ACME Swisstech President Giv Zanganeh described the collaboration as enabling "mining systems that are radically different from today's plug-and-play, retail-oriented products in the market," taking "a holistic, industrial co-design approach aimed at large-scale operations."

Canaan, which specializes in ASIC design and mining hardware manufacturing, brings established expertise to the partnership. The collaboration reflects Tether's broader push into mining infrastructure control, building on its previous development of an open-source Mining OS and Mining SDK, the latter of which was released on Monday.

No release timeline for the Bitcoin mining hardware was revealed, nor did Tether share any imagery of the planned designs. Decrypt reached out to Tether on both points but did not immediately receive a response.

Tether's mining hardware initiative represents the latest expansion beyond its core USDT stablecoin business. The company is also building decentralized AI infrastructure via its QVAC tech, which enables the creation of local, offline AI apps.

The modular hardware approach could provide competitive advantages in hash rate efficiency as mining economics tighten. The Bitcoin mining business has become particularly challenging in recent months as the price of the top crypto asset has plunged nearly 40% from its record high last fall, with many mining firms pivoting focus to providing AI compute amid that boom.

Daily Debrief Newsletter