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China on the African horizon: Mining giants explore Ethiopia
Chinese Mining Companies Are Targeting Ethiopia
Chinese mining companies are actively expanding their activities in Ethiopia, seeing this African country as a promising platform for investment and development of industrial bitcoin mining. According to information received from Bloomberg sources, the number of Chinese investments in this sector is growing.
Ethiopia marked a new era in the field of cryptocurrencies by legalizing bitcoin mining in 2022. The government of the country is going to meet foreign companies, offering them excess energy capacity for mining. In return, Ethiopia is counting on investments that will contribute to the country's economic growth.
An example of active investment activity is the dam construction project, estimated at $4.8 billion, which received financing from several Chinese enterprises. As a result of this project, miners expect to gain access to the necessary amounts of electricity for their operations.
The interest of companies from China is largely due to the competitive advantages of Ethiopia, such as a comfortable climate with an average annual temperature of about +25 °C, low cost of electricity – 92% of which is generated by hydroelectric power plants – and support from local authorities.
Against the background of Chinese initiatives, the Russian company BitCluster has also announced plans to launch its own data center in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The 120 MW data center will be equipped with 34,000 Antminer S21 miners with a total hashrate of 6.8 Eh/s. The launch of this data center is planned as early as the first quarter of 2024, which indicates a rapid increase in interest in this region among major players in the cryptocurrency industry.
