Starcloud Launches Space-Based Bitcoin Mining Venture with Starcloud-2 Satellite

Starcloud, Inc., a Washington-based startup, is preparing to launch its second satellite, Starcloud-2, which will carry Bitcoin mining ASICs, making it one of the first companies to attempt cryptocurrency mining in space. This move is seen as a natural extension of the company's mission to build orbital data centers for AI workloads.

According to CEO Philip Johnston, the use of solar panels in space allows for nearly uninterrupted sunlight, providing essentially free energy after the hardware is deployed. This significantly reduces the cost of Bitcoin mining, which is currently dominated by high-energy consumption.

The company's first test satellite, Starcloud-1, launched on November 2, 2025, and carried a single Nvidia H100 GPU, making it the first data-center-class GPU to operate in orbit. The Bitcoin mining component enters the picture with Starcloud-2, which will carry ASICs alongside Nvidia Blackwell chips and AWS server blades.

Johnston framed the Bitcoin mining capability as both a proof-of-concept and a pragmatic business decision. When demand for AI compute is high, the orbital hardware handles those workloads. When demand dips, the ASICs keep hashing and generating revenue.