Phoenix Group Expands Bitcoin Mining Capacity in Ethiopia by 52 MW

Bitcoin mining firm Phoenix Group has announced the addition of 52 megawatts (MW) of mining capacity in Ethiopia, bringing its total capacity in the region to 132 MW. This expansion is part of the company's strategy to secure prime locations with abundant, low-cost energy, as stated by its co-founder and CEO, Munaf Ali. The new capacity is expected to solidify Phoenix Group's position in the market and create significant value.

The latest addition follows an agreement signed in January, which secured the right to 80 MW of power in Ethiopia. The new site is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2025 and will be developed in two phases. The first phase will use 20 MW to power 5,300 air-cooled mining units, with an expected hashrate of 1.2 exahashes per second. The second phase, expected to be completed by the end of Q2 2025, will utilize the full 52 MW with water cooling, producing an estimated 2.4 exahashes per second of hashrate.

An exahash is a unit of computational power used to measure the speed of cryptocurrency mining networks, particularly Bitcoin. It quantifies how many trillions of calculations a mining network can perform per second. The plant will be powered by renewable energy, specifically clean hydropower, setting a new benchmark for sustainable mining in Africa and delivering large-scale operations in energy-rich regions, as highlighted by Reza Nedjatian, the CEO of the firm’s mining, artificial intelligence, and data center subsidiary.

Phoenix Group became a publicly-traded company following its late 2023 listing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The firm successfully closed its initial public offering (IPO) with an oversubscription of 33 times, reporting overwhelming demand for its 907,323,529 shares. Following the listing, Phoenix Group shares rapidly rose by 50% following the $371 million IPO, opening at 2.25 dirhams and rapidly reaching 1.50 dirhams. At the time of writing, shares are trading at around $7.94.

The firm is known for its large-scale mining initiatives, having acquired $187 million worth of Bitcoin mining equipment in a single transaction in early 2024. Bitcoin mining is not the only activity the firm is involved in. In 2024, Tether, the largest stablecoin provider in the digital asset industry, announced plans to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the United Arab Emirates dirham. Tether partnered with Phoenix Group and Green Acorn Investments on the project.