HIVE to hit 3% of global Bitcoin production by Thanksgiving
HIVE Digital Technologies produced 247 Bitcoin in August — a 22% jump from July. executive chairman Frank Holmes says the increase reflects the company’s push into green energy projects abroad and an accelerating shift into high-performance computing (HPC).
Speaking on TheStreet Roundtable, Holmes explained how HIVE turned to Paraguay after energy pressures rose in Canada and Scandinavia. “Sweden put a 100% tax on their electricity for data centers,” he said.
In contrast, Paraguay’s Itaipu Dam, a seven-kilometer hydroelectric plant built on the Brazil–Paraguay border, generates 10 gigawatts of power — with large surpluses available for export.
“I reached out and met the president and went down and said, okay, we’re going to Paraguay. And that started the journey,” Holmes said. HIVE secured 200 megawatts in the country, completing construction quickly.
“By American Thanksgiving we should be 3% of the global Bitcoin production — and it’s all green coins,” he said.
Related: Explained: Types of Bitcoin mining
HIVE expects its computing power to rise from 18 to 25 exahash by Thanksgiving, with room for more growth. “Opportunities are coming to us and we’re very excited about it,” Holmes said.
The company is also investing in Canada. HIVE is converting former Bitcoin mining facilities into data centers capable of hosting Nvidia chips. In Toronto, a 7.2 megawatt site is being upgraded to “tier three” standards for AI workloads. “It can be done in nine months, not three years,” Holmes said.
A partnership with Bell Canada and software firm Cohere will see HIVE host $100 million in Nvidia chips for enterprise systems in Manitoba, alongside 80 megawatts in Eastern Canada. Holmes said these projects will make HIVE “the largest sovereign data center company in Canada.”
Holmes acknowledged that rivals such as CoreWeave and Core Scientific are moving away from Bitcoin mining altogether. But HIVE, he said, will straddle both. “We see a vacuum being created where we come in,” he said. The economics differ sharply between the two businesses.
“To build a data center for Bitcoin mining, for every megawatt of electricity, it’s a million dollars,” Holmes said. “With HPC, it’s 10 million — and that excludes the chips.”
He compared Bitcoin ASIC chips to “Jeeps or Bronco trucks,” while GPUs for AI are “Porsches, Ferraris, and Bugattis.” Both require expertise, but HPC demands higher capital intensity and engineering skill.
