Digital Currency Group (DCG) has committed $100 million to Foundry, its crypto mining unit.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), the owner of Grayscale Investments and CoinDesk, and an investor in blockchain companies globally announced its commitment to invest over $ 100 million in Foundry, a wholly-owned crypto mining subsidiary. (Bitcoin.com)

Foundry

Founded in 2019, Foundry is a source of capital and consulting knowledge to the digital mining industry.

A statement by DCG said Foundry had already funded equipment worth tens of millions of dollars to digital asset miners. Further, it had already cemented its position as one of the largest bitcoin miners in North America.  Apart from equipment financing, Foundry also offers mining and staking and consulting and advisory services.

One of the key objectives of Foundry was to heed the long-standing call from institutions to improve market efficiency and transparency in the bitcoin mining industry.

Foundry is North America focused

Foundry has already helped procure nearly half of the bitcoin mining equipment delivered in North America this year.

The crypto mining industry has been dominated by Chinese companies with access to cheap sources of energy.

Entrepreneur Barry Silbert, the owner of DCG, is keen to restore the balance. He wants North American firms to have a greater say in global crypto mining.

“We want to empower decentralized infrastructure in the new digital economy, and our work will support the development and growth of mining operations — particularly in North America,” said Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry, in the statement.

According to Fortune, which quoted DCG, even Washington is keen to wrest back some of this control from China. Especially now that bitcoin’s market capitalization is over $200 billion.

Silbert is of the view that Foundry would turn out to be a successful business venture because its business model relies not just on cheap energy. He intends to invest in new generation, highly energy-efficient mining equipment, and a transparent business culture.

Rising investment in crypto mining

There is been a surge in interest in crypto mining in recent weeks, evidenced by news of both large equipment purchases and M&A activity.

Last week, Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) said it will acquire Fastblock Mining for approximately $22 million in an all-stock deal. The transaction will give Marathon additional scale and halve its mining cost from $7400 per bitcoin to $3600 per bitcoin.

Earlier this month, Marathon had announced its purchase of 10,500 next-generation Antminer S-19 Pro models for $23 million from Chinese ASIC mining manufacturer Bitmain.

Just last week, Marathon’s listed rival Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) also purchased 8,000 of Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro bitcoin miners in a $17.7 million deal.

It appears there already is a race to grab top honors for crypto mining scale in North America.

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