mining

According to the New Straits Times, Malaysian police recently dismantled an illegal Bitcoin mining operation located in Tronoh, arresting two men aged 40 and 52, and confiscating 73 cryptocurrency mining devices and related equipment.

Fortitude Mining, a mining company under Digital Currency Group (DCG), has signed a procurement agreement worth approximately $45 million, involving mining hardware and infrastructure in Nebraska, to advance the vertical integration of Zcash mining.This expansion includes a $31.5 million commitment for mining equipment purchases, as well as two acquisitions totaling $13.9 million, which include power contracts, land, buildings, and mining equipment. Fortitude stated that its controlled data center capacity has increased to over 60 megawatts by 2026. Fortitude is advancing a proposed merger with Nasdaq-listed HeartSciences Inc.; if completed, this mining company under DCG will gain public listing status. In the first quarter of 2026, Zcash accounted for 61% of Fortitude's mining revenue, while Bitcoin's share dropped to 36%.

According to Russian media bits.media, Igor Runets, the founder of Russia's largest mining company BitRiver, has been transferred from house arrest to detention pending trial by the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow due to allegations of fraud amounting to 100 million rubles. He will be held in custody for at least two months. The charges are based on Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation—"particularly large-scale fraud committed by an organized group."The investigation claims the case involves the supply of mining equipment, causing nearly 100 million rubles in losses to the metallurgical and energy companies under the En+ Group. Investigators requested the detention of Runets on the grounds that he might influence witnesses, and the court approved this request. Representatives of BitRiver and Runets' lawyer have not yet commented on the court's ruling, and the progress of the case will depend on the equipment appraisal and witness testimonies from En+. In February of this year, Russian law enforcement suspected Runets of concealing assets to evade taxes, leading to his arrest and house arrest on charges of tax evasion. BitRiver is facing bankruptcy and ownership risks, with its owner Fox Group having debts of approximately 9.2 million dollars, and assets insufficient to repay the debts, prompting a bankruptcy application.

The Hawkins County Commissioners in Tennessee, USA, passed a ban with 12 votes in favor and 0 votes against, prohibiting the establishment, construction, installation, expansion, and operation of cryptocurrency mining facilities and data centers in the county's unincorporated areas.The commission had previously passed a similar ban in September 2025 to prevent the digital asset company ExoticRidge from conducting mining operations locally, and in January confirmed its related authority through a resolution. ExoticRidge proposed a settlement with Hawkins County officials in January, allowing the company to build and operate facilities under noise restrictions. The proposed terms require that the A-weighted decibel noise at the property boundary must not exceed 80 decibels for more than 30 minutes within any 4-hour period.A law signed in Tennessee in April has stipulated that, starting July 1, the use and installation of cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks will be illegal, with the restrictions aimed at incidents of residents transferring money to scammers using the devices.

According to The Block, Bernstein has lowered Circle's target price from $190 to $140 while maintaining an outperform rating. Analyst Gautam Chhugani stated that the threat posed to Circle by the Open USD Alliance, supported by over 140 institutions including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe, is lower than market expectations. As of July 28, Circle's closing price was $64.32.The end-of-quarter supply of USDC for the second quarter was approximately $73 billion, down from $77 billion in the first quarter, with the average supply rising to about $76 billion. The average SOFR for the second quarter decreased to 3.62%, the reserve return rate fell to 3.46%, and reserve income rose to approximately $655 million. The USDC balance on Hyperliquid has increased from $5 billion in mid-May to over $6 billion, generating about $210 million in annualized gross reserve income, of which approximately $190 million is directed to the exchange according to the revenue-sharing agreement.Bernstein has reduced its forecast for USDC supply at the end of 2026 by 37% to $83 billion and lowered its 2028 forecast to $170 billion; the adjusted EBITDA forecast for 2026 has been cut by 12% to $602 million, and the earnings per share (EPS) forecast has been lowered from $1.98 to $0.92. However, the firm expects that by 2035, the total supply of stablecoins will reach $4 trillion, with Circle holding about a 30% share. Additionally, Circle received final approval from the OCC in July to establish Circle National Trust.

According to Cointelegraph, Uzbekistan has officially launched its first tax-free cryptocurrency mining zone, Besqala Mining Valley, where miners can enjoy tax exemptions until 2035, while needing to pay a 1% revenue fee and double the electricity price. The relevant bill was signed in April.

According to Bitcoin News, MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel stated that the revenue generated per unit of electricity by AI data centers is higher than that of Bitcoin mining.

According to TheMinerMag, the former largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, Poolin, has applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, planning to sell its Texas Bitcoin mining assets for $52 million and cease operations. Poolin and its two U.S. affiliates submitted a voluntary application to the bankruptcy court in New Jersey on July 22, with liabilities of approximately $173 million, of which about $163.7 million is unsecured IOUs issued to Poolin wallet users after withdrawals were suspended during the downturn of the crypto market in 2022.Approximately 11,700 wallet users hold balances of over $100. Its two Texas mining sites ceased mining and hosting operations on July 10. Poolin has reached an asset purchase agreement with Thor CALAP LLC, with the Pyote site valued at $15 million and the Tarbush site’s power rights and equipment valued at $37 million, making a total bid of $52 million as the starting bid. Poolin stated that demand for AI infrastructure may increase the value of the mining site’s power and equipment. The final recovery amount from the court auction will depend on bids, fees, and court approval.

A report jointly released by the Bitcoin collateral lending platform CoinRabbit and the computing power platform GoMining points out that managing Bitcoin is more important than mining it. As the block reward drops to 3.125 BTC and the overall network difficulty approaches historical highs, low electricity prices and high uptime only constitute a survival baseline. What truly differentiates mining companies is the method of handling Bitcoin after it is mined.The report suggests that mining companies are shifting from direct sales to collateralized lending to cover recurring expenses such as electricity, custody, and labor. This approach retains exposure to holding Bitcoin while generating cash flow, avoids taxable sales, and preserves the deduction space for operating expenses. The trade-off is that mining companies simultaneously bear the dual risks of price and liquidation when Bitcoin prices decline.Jeremy Dreier, Chief Business Development Officer of GoMining, stated that the miners who can succeed after the halving are those who operate efficiently and have set aside cash in advance for this purpose. The current decline in Bitcoin prices has actually lowered the cost of increasing computing power, creating a window of opportunity for investing in expanding mining machines.

On July 23, WEEX announced that the platform has launched the "WXT Gold Rush Season." During the event period (7/21 18:00 - 7/28 17:59:59 UTC+8), new users who make their first spot trading purchase of WXT can receive 100 WXT + 100 USDT contract bonus; all users whose net purchase of WXT reaches specified tiers can participate in sharing the prize pool of 60,000 WXT / 100,000 WXT / 200,000 WXT / 300,000 WXT; new users who participate in WXT Staking for the first time and reach the specified staking amount can receive a 5% or 10% APR interest coupon; existing users who increase their staking amount to reach the specified tier can receive a 5% or 10% APR interest coupon.

According to Report.az, the government of Kazakhstan has approved the "Strategic Digital Mining Implementation Rules," allowing enterprises to obtain electricity quotas from power generation institutions at a capped price over the next 10 years.In exchange, the relevant enterprises are required to transfer a portion of the mined cryptocurrency into the Astana Hub Autonomous Cluster Fund, which will then be managed in trust by the National Investment Company under the National Bank of Kazakhstan to supplement the national strategic cryptocurrency reserves.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) latest forecast shows that by 2035, electricity consumption by data centers in the United States will account for about 20% of the nation's total electricity consumption, a significant increase from the current level of about 5.9%. The agency has raised its forecast for data center electricity demand in 2035 to 106 GW, which is 36% higher than the 78 GW predicted in April this year. Currently, the operating capacity of data centers in the U.S. is about 40 GW, accounting for approximately 3.5%-4% of the national electricity demand, while under BNEF's baseline scenario, this proportion is expected to reach 8.6% by 2035. The high-growth model from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) indicates that if the combined effects of cryptocurrency mining and AI computing power are taken into account, the upper limit of this proportion also points to 20%.In response to the explosive growth in AI computing power demand, Bitcoin mining companies are actively transforming. Companies like Core Scientific and Riot Platforms have partnered with tech giants such as AWS and Google to convert their existing mining sites into AI data centers. Currently, Bitcoin mining companies have secured about 6 GW of electricity capacity, which is expected to expand to 12 GW by 2027, with some analysts estimating that about 20% of mining companies' computing power capacity will shift towards AI workloads by then. Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) shows that data centers now account for about 90% of local large load applications, with many sites originally used for cryptocurrency mining being repurposed as AI computing facilities. This trend is also directly reflected in the capital markets, as Core Scientific has seen a significant rebound in its stock price after emerging from bankruptcy and partnering with AI cloud service provider CoreWeave.

According to GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer released an unaudited production and operation update for June 2026. The company's Bitcoin mining output in June was 990 coins, a year-on-year increase of 388%; self-mining computing power was 73 EH/s, with a total managed computing power of 86.1 EH/s, and 243,000 self-owned mining machines.The Sealminer Nevada manufacturing plant has begun construction and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. In terms of AI cloud business, monthly ARR has increased to $76 million, GPU utilization is at 95%, and the delivery of the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 cluster has been completed. Currently, Bitdeer's total controllable power capacity globally reaches 3.02 gigawatts, with multiple cryptocurrency data centers simultaneously advancing the transformation into AI computing center plans.

Digital asset investment company CoinShares announced the launch of a new investment platform and the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining UCITS ETF, entering the UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) market ecosystem in Europe, which is worth $30 trillion.CoinShares stated that this initiative aims to help CoinShares expand its business towards major institutional investors in Europe, including pension funds, insurance companies, and private banks.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Florida resident Zan Shaikh and his company Bright Vision Distribution LLC (operating under the name Mining Automatic), accusing them of defrauding investors through a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining investment scheme, with approximately $22 million raised.The SEC stated that from June 2023 to May 2025, Shaikh and Mining Automatic promised investors fixed monthly returns by participating in cryptocurrency mining operations, but the related mining operations were actually unable to generate the promised returns. According to the SEC's complaint, Shaikh and Mining Automatic are accused of making false statements regarding their cryptocurrency mining experience, operational capabilities, the use of investment funds, and the status of the mining business, and explained payment delays by claiming they were unable to pay investor returns.

As of June 23, 2026, Foundry Digital, AntPool, ViaBTC, and F2Pool collectively control over 70% of the Bitcoin network's hash rate, accounting for approximately 31%, 18%, 13%, and 10%, respectively. Foundry Digital is a U.S. mining pool supported by Digital Currency Group, primarily targeting large institutions and publicly listed mining companies.D-Central provided a Nakamoto coefficient of 3 for the first half of 2026, meaning that only 3 mining pools are needed to exceed the majority of block production.

According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, the Tehran Power Distribution Company stated that 187 illegal cryptocurrency mining devices were seized in two industrial units in Khorasan and Shahriar.

According to The Block, the operational data for June disclosed by publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies CleanSpark, BitFuFu, and Canaan shows that the Bitcoin production of all three companies declined compared to May. Among them, CleanSpark produced 614 BTC in June, down from 671 BTC in May; BitFuFu produced 125 BTC, down from 177 BTC the previous month; and Canaan produced 64 BTC, down from 90 BTC the previous month.The report points out that the reasons for the production decline vary among the three companies. CleanSpark's average operating hash rate in June decreased from 46 EH/s to about 43 EH/s; BitFuFu's total hash rate dropped from 19.5 EH/s to 15 EH/s, mainly affected by a decrease in hosted hash rate, although its self-owned hash rate has risen to 3.5 EH/s; Canaan attributed part of the production decline to maintenance of the power grid at some mining sites.It is worth noting that the aforementioned production decline occurred after the Bitcoin mining difficulty was reduced by over 10% in mid-June, reaching a new low since 2026.