Starcloud, a company backed by Nvidia, says it plans to start Bitcoin mining in space this year.

Starcloud Plans to Mine Bitcoin in Space—Backed by Nvidia, Powered by 88,000 Satellites

Bitcoin mining is about to go interplanetary. Starcloud, an orbital data center startup with Nvidia's backing, says it will start mining BTC in space later this year when its second spacecraft launches. If successful, they'll be the first to mine crypto off-Earth.

CEO Philip Johnston makes a cost argument: ASIC miners in space are a "most attractive use case" because they're way cheaper than GPUs. Per kilowatt, GPUs cost about 30 times more. A 1kW B200 chip? $30,000. A 1kW ASIC? Around $1,000. For Johnston, the math is simple: mining on Earth "makes no sense." He sees space mining becoming a "massive industry," predicting all mining eventually moves off-planet.

Starcloud's data center is built on roughly 88,000 satellites, mostly solar-powered. Founded in early 2024, they already put an NVIDIA H100-equipped satellite into orbit last November. Next stop: ASICs in orbit.