As the Texas crypto gold rush continues, due in large part to the state’s lower energy costs, the demand for mining increases. To mine cryptocurrency like bitcoin, you need mining rigs – powerful computers used to validate cryptocurrency transactions on a decentralized ledger. And more rigs are needed to meet this rising demand.
That’s why Blockmetrix, a bitcoin mining company based in Dallas, raised $43 million in Series B financing. After using its $7 million Series A to deploy over 1,000 rigs last June, Blockmetrix plans to use its new funding to secure an additional 5,000+ rigs to increase its mining power.
Founded in 2021, Blockmetrix is a bitcoin mining company that utilizes a peer-to-peer payment network to validate bitcoin network transactions, in exchange for bitcoin compensation.
“Acquiring this additional funding is a significant milestone and testament to our team’s effort to build this company at breakneck speed,” Blockmetrix co-founder and CEO Nevin Bannister said in a statement. “Scaling our company as quickly as possible has been our main prerogative since day one. We are striving to keep up this momentum and meet industry demand as we enter our interim round and eventual third round of funding.”
The company is able to maximize its crypto mining potential by housing its rigs in a facility with round-the-clock security, remote analytics for miner monitoring and low electric costs. The facility also has access to renewable energy, which considering the environmental impact of crypto mining, could make Blockmetrix’s operations more carbon efficient than its competitors. According to Investopedia, only 39 percent of crypto mining operations use renewable energy.
Bannister says part of Blockmetrix’s ability to reduce its carbon footprint has to do with Texas’ recent strides in renewable energy. Last year, the state installed 7,352 megawatts of new renewable energy projects. Blockmetrix says it is following in the state’s footsteps with energy saving initiatives.
“We are experimenting with immersion cooling for our rigs which lowers electrical consumption and the carbon footprint,” Bannister told Built In in an email. “We are planning to tie into ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, to add more solar and wind to the grid in the next few years, as well as working with our co-hosting partners to prioritize facilities powered by renewable energy for our future hosting needs."
According to a company statement, this is the second time a Blockmetrix funding round has been oversubscribed. The company declined to share the names of its investors, saying only that they were from the U.S., Australia and several countries in Asia. To date, the company has raised $50 million to scale its operations.
