Startup Plans to Mine Bitcoin in Space
A U.S. startup called Starcloud is planning to mine Bitcoin in space by deploying solar-powered ASICs on satellites. The ambitious goal is to slash the massive energy costs associated with the crypto mining industry's 20GW power demand.
Starcloud's move into space-based Bitcoin mining is part of a larger strategy to build orbital data centers, a venture that has already attracted significant investment and partnerships. The company has raised $34 million and is collaborating with AI infrastructure provider Crusoe Cloud. This partnership includes plans to deploy Crusoe's cloud infrastructure on Starcloud's satellites, aiming to have orbital GPU capacity available by early 2027. The company's next satellite, Starcloud-2, is scheduled to launch in October 2026 and represents a significant leap in capability. It is designed to have 100 times the power generation of its predecessor, Starcloud-1, which successfully operated an NVIDIA H100 GPU in orbit. Starcloud-2 will carry multiple advanced NVIDIA chips and will be the platform for the company's first commercial offerings. The rationale for moving data centers and crypto mining to space is twofold: energy and cooling. In a sun-synchronous orbit, solar panels can generate uninterrupted power, bypassing the limitations and environmental impact of terrestrial grids. Space also offers a near-perfect vacuum with an ambient temperature of approximately -270 degrees Celsius, allowing for highly efficient, passive radiative cooling and eliminating the massive water consumption required by data centers on Earth. The environmental footprint of terrestrial data centers is substantial, with the industry accounting for 1-1.5% of global carbon emissions and significant water usage for cooling. A single 40-megawatt terrestrial cluster can consume over 1 million tons of water annually. Starcloud claims that over the lifecycle of a space-based data center, there could be a tenfold reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared to a terrestrially powered one. The legal framework for such commercial space ventures is governed by international agreements like the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which designates outer space as the "province of all mankind" and prohibits national appropriation. More recent agreements, like the Artemis Accords signed by 56 countries as of September 2025, support the extraction and use of space resources for commercial purposes, provided it doesn't constitute a claim of sovereignty. Starcloud's long-term vision extends to deploying 40-megawatt orbital data centers by the early 2030s, powered by solar arrays several kilometers wide. This ambition is underpinned by the rapidly decreasing costs of satellite launches, which is making large-scale commercial operations in space increasingly viable.
