Starcloud to Launch Orbital Bitcoin Mining Operation

Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud plans to mine Bitcoin from space later this year when its second spacecraft launches. This would make it the first company to mine Bitcoin off Earth, according to CEO Philip Johnston.

Johnston said running ASIC miners in space would be one of the most compelling use cases for space-based compute. He cited economics as the main driver, noting that a 1-kilowatt ASIC costs around $1,000 compared to roughly $30,000 for a comparable GPU.

This makes ASIC mining approximately 30 times cheaper per kilowatt in space, Johnston said. The current cost dynamics also suggest that Bitcoin mining could become a massive industry based on orbital operations.