In conjunction with the launch, the firm has also acquired Atelier Ventures and brought on its founder Li Jin as a partner investor.
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Atlas, which aims to be 100% carbon-free, signed a 100-megawatt “colocation capacity” deal with Compute North to expand its U.S. mining operations, the miner said in a statement on Tuesday.
All of the mining machines will be ASICs and will mine bitcoin only, according to an emailed statement to CoinDesk. Recently, as part of its expansion plans, Atlas also signed a deal with Core Scientific in October to host new bitcoin miners.
With the environmental impact of crypto mining activities in the forefront of many conversations, most miners are trying to source more renewable energy to power their operations.
“To achieve sustainable growth in adherence to its ESG commitments, Atlas is carrying out a mass adoption of renewable energy, with a long-term goal to be 100% carbon-free,” Atlas Chairman Raymond Yuan said in a statement.
Compute North, which works to build and operate at locations where the majority of the energy provided is renewable, will power Atlas’ mining rigs via electrical grids, where a wide variety of fuel sources will be used, the data centers operator said in an email statement to CoinDesk.
“We also work with customers, like Atlas, to enhance their ESG program by helping to provide options for things like tax equity and renewable energy certificates (RECs) to address this challenge and to demonstrate their commitment to investing in renewable energy,” Minnesota-based firm said in the emailed statement.
The decision to expand in the U.S. comes as more miners are migrating their operations to North America, following China’s sweeping crypto ban. In fact, recently the U.S. has taken the top mantle in bitcoin mining and the trend is expected to continue due to geopolitical certainty, access to cheap power and infrastructure.
Altas has contracted more than 400 megawatts of infrastructure capacity with local partners in different regions and plans to add 1GW of capacity in the next 18 months, according to the statement. To date, the miner has purchased more than 200,000 mining rigs and aims to continue to acquire more over the next few years, the miner added.
Compute North’s colocation service entails providing a data center to host mining equipment. The company currently operates three such facilities, in Texas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The combined firm is launching a $110 million first-check fund to invest in user-owned products and services.
The fund will invest heavily in Web 3.0 projects and tokens.
Revolut is allowing U.S. customers to trade as much as $200,000 of crypto a month commission free starting today.
Trading volume in the bitcoin-tether trading pair on the OKEx crypto exchange reached more than 10,000 BTC in a span of two hours – at least $620 million worth based on the current price.
Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber is in talks with the government over regulation of the industry, its CEO has said.
Silvergate Bank’s average digital currency deposits grew to $11.2 billion during Q3, compared with $9.9 billion during the previous quarter.
Galaxy Digital re-stocked its crypto-culture war chest earlier this year with a $325 million venture fund focused on digital entertainment.
The fund, from Galaxy Interactive, which scouts gaming and arts startups for Mike Novogratz’s crypto conglomerate, has been investing in projects such as Art Blocks for months now, General Partner Sam Englebardt told CoinDesk.
“What would you invest in if you believe that the younger generations, in particular, are moving en masse from the physical to the digital world?’” Englebardt said in an interview, noting that Galaxy Interactive has showered $150 million on projects accordingly.
If non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other crypto tech are to form the backbone of this coming metaverse, then Galaxy wants its share of the spine. The same goes for gaming, blockchain or no.
Englebardt was hesitant to label Galaxy Interactive’s strategy a “metaverse” play, however. The term, which refers to virtual worlds users can interact with, is fast becoming a buzzword. He called it “confusing,” in part because it is growing increasingly ill-defined.
Read more: Art Blocks Raises $6M From True Ventures, Galaxy on Strength of Generative NFTs
Full immersion virtual worlds a la “Ready Player One” – a true metaverse – aren’t yet achievable. Even so, technologies today are already blurring the boundaries between physical and digital, creating a mixed world.
“We’re investing in a lot of technologies and businesses that we think are going to be instrumental to evolving us from this weaker concept of the metaverse to the much, much deeper, more philosophically interesting idea,” Englebardt said.
Gaming is a critical part of Galaxy Interactive’s playbook. It participated in 1047 Studios, the company behind a popular free-to-play shooter title, and Elodie Games, which is building a cross-platform gaming experience. Neither are crypto-first.
High-brow digital art projects have also found Galaxy Interactive’s blessing. Masterworks, a securitized art startup with a $1 billion price tag, is a portfolio company. So is Art Blocks, the super-hot NFT platform for generative art.
The fund has more flexibility than Galaxy Interactive’s 2018 venture. That joint partnership with Block.one had $325 million to spend on projects at least tangentially related to the EOS ecosystem, and only in equity rounds. There are no such bounds on this edition: it is chain-agnostic and can invest in equity or tokens.
Investment in crypto and DeFi businesses in Europe has already surpassed quarterly records, just a few weeks into the fourth quarter.
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