Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin USDT, is deepening its partnership with Canaan Inc. to develop modular Bitcoin mining systems, a move that pushes the company further into controlling its own crypto infrastructure. The announcement was made on April 28, 2026.
"Most mining infrastructure is still built as sealed, fixed units, which makes it expensive to scale and inefficient to run,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement. “Tether is revisioning that concept by deploying modular compute that can be tuned, upgraded, and cooled independently, so we can directly control cost, efficiency, and how these systems perform at scale.”
The new systems, co-developed with Nasdaq-listed hardware maker Canaan and industrial firm ACME Swisstech, are designed for large-scale operations. Unlike traditional "plug-and-play" retail miners, this modular architecture separates the computing hash boards from power and cooling components. This allows operators to upgrade individual parts without replacing entire machines, a design similar to the "Proto Rig" concept being developed by Jack Dorsey's Block.
The partnership underscores Tether's aggressive expansion into Bitcoin mining, part of a stated goal for the company to become the world's largest miner by the end of 2025. This strategy allows Tether, which holds billions in reserves, to vertically integrate and directly manage the production of the asset that backs a portion of its stablecoin business. The move follows Tether's disclosure last week of an 8.2% stake in Antalpha, a mining finance firm linked to hardware giant Bitmain.
Tether's focus on building out its own mining capacity comes as many publicly traded miners are diversifying away from Bitcoin. Companies like HIVE Digital and TeraWulf are shifting toward artificial intelligence workloads to counter falling mining profitability. The price of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 40% from its all-time high, squeezing margins across the industry.
Instead of pivoting, Tether is doubling down on Bitcoin's core infrastructure. The company previously open-sourced its own Bitcoin Mining OS (MOS) to challenge proprietary management software. By partnering with Canaan for application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) hash boards and ACME for industrial design, Tether is assembling a custom, vertically integrated mining operation.
While financial terms and the delivery timeline for the new hardware were not disclosed, the deal confirms an ongoing relationship. Tether has placed previous orders with Canaan, suggesting the stablecoin issuer is satisfied with the hardware's performance in its existing deployments, including facilities in Uruguay.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
