Beleaguered Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Inks Deal with Core Scientific

Despite some recent struggles, New York Bitcoin miner Greenidge today announced it was emerging from hard times to expand operations through a partnership with Core Scientific. 

In an announcement Thursday, the miner said that Core Scientific will host 6,914 of Greenidge’s mining rigs as part of a one-year partnership. Core Scientific is a miner with facilities in Dalton, Georgia, and Calvert City, Kentucky. 

Greenidge, which is based in Upstate New York, will also install an additional 1,500 company-owned miners at its existing facilities. 

As recently as December, the miner said it had “substantial doubt” about its capacity to continue as a business. By January, the company managed to ink a deal with NYDIG and B. Riley that reduced its corporate debt by $61 million. Prior to that, the company was considering voluntary bankruptcy in the midst of a relentless bear market. It hasn’t helped either that Greenidge has become a controversial company, drawing attention from activists and legislators who have criticized the miner for its environmental practices.

And last year, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied Greenidge’s air permit renewal, citing issues like its failure to prove “adequate GreenHouse Gas (GHG) mitigation measures.” The company’s now challenging that denial in court.

Now, with Thursday’s announcement, the miner says it has turned a page. Chief Executive Officer of Greenidge Dave Anderson said in a release that the Core Scientific partnership “will significantly improve our profitability as we move forward.”

Bitcoin mining, which involves using powerful computers to verify transactions on the blockchain, has been hit hard by the current bear market. The price of Bitcoin has tumbled a long way from its all-time high of $69,044, which it saw in November 2021. Since then, mining operations have struggled to make profit.

Miners are usually big operations consisting of warehouses hosting expensive computer machinery. A number of operations have had to sell their Bitcoin rewards or close down completely.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated to clarify that Greenidge considered bankruptcy because of the bear market, not criticism from activists and or lawmakers, and that it is challenging the denial of air permit renewal.