Cloud Miner BitFuFu Expands with New Mining Facility in Ethiopia

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Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company BitFuFu announced on October 22 plans to acquire a majority stake in Ethiopia’s 80-megawatt (MW) crypto mining facility.

The acquisition is a shift for the Wall Street-based miner, seeking cheaper energy sources in East Africa to address rising operational costs and shrinking profit margins.

Over the past year, BitFuFu’s operational costs surged by 170%, resulting in a 75% decline in net profit. The company’s move into Ethiopia is expected to mitigate these challenges by tapping into lower energy costs, averaging below $0.04 per kilowatt-hour.

According to the announcement, when equipped with Bitmain’s latest S21-series miners, the Ethiopian facility is projected to add 4.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) to BitFuFu’s mining capacity. Power costs at the new facility average below $0.04 per kilowatt-hour, promising to reduce BitFuFu’s cost of Bitcoin production.

With this acquisition, BitFuFu’s total hosting capacity will surpass 600 MW from 522 MW, with approximately 13% now directly owned and operated by the company. This marks a departure from its previous asset-light strategy, where third-party facilities hosted its operations.

While the acquisition’s value is undisclosed, it is a major milestone for the company, which has previously operated entirely through third-party hosted facilities in the U.S., Portugal, and Indonesia.

The acquisition is part of the company’s long-term strategy to expand its operational capacity and technological efficiency at the new Ethiopian site and explore further