Bitcoin Miner Crusoe Energy Buys Fellow Flared-Gas Operator GAM

Bitcoin miner Crusoe Energy has acquired its peer Great American Mining (GAM), adding 9% to its capacity as the industry continues to consolidate amid a challenging market that is squeezing miners’ margins.

In the past few months, miners have seen their profits dwindle amid the bear market and rising energy prices globally. Some have already turned to mergers and acquisitions for survival, with others taking advantage of the opportunities.

Under the agreement, Crusoe will take over all of GAM’s operating assets across five states, the firm said in a press release on Wednesday. Those assets comprise more than 10 megawatts (MW) of operational bitcoin mining capacity, about 4,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners, a manufacturing facility in Louisiana, 24 employees and commercial relationships with several large-scale energy producers in North Dakota and Montana. GAM’s facilities will be using Crusoe’s patented technology for flared-gas mitigation.

GAM produces containers for bitcoin mining in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and deploys them across North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, according to its website.

The acquisition will add around 9% to Crusoe’s capacity, such that the firm will count 125 deployed flare gas-powered modular data centers. This will in turn increase its capacity to reduce CO2-equivalent emissions toapproximately 800,000 metric tons per year, which is the equivalent of removing approximately 170,000 cars from circulation, the company said.

Crusoe and GAM both use flared gas to mine bitcoin, meaning they power their machines using excess gas that is released when drilling for fossil fuels, thus reducing their emissions. This is touted as environmentally friendly, but environmentalists and the White House are skeptical about whether this practice is the right path for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Crusoe is working with oil producers in the Middle East for flared-gas mining, while giants such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are also looking into the industry.

Read more: Flared-Gas Bitcoin Miner Crusoe Energy Raises $350M Series C