The9 sets up another joint venture to mine crypto in Kazakhstan

The9 Ltd., a Chinese gaming company that only a few months ago pivoted its business to crypto mining, is setting up another joint venture in Kazakhstan as it ramps up its mining operations in the Central Asian nation that shares a border with China.

Fast facts

• Nasdaq-listed The9 has signed an investment memorandum through a subsidiary — NBTC Ltd. — with local company LGHSTR Ltd., to establish a joint venture in Kazakhstan, according to a company statement released on Friday.

• The9’s NBTC is set to own 51% of the new joint venture, while LGHSTR plans to hold the rest of the stake.

• The new joint venture is expected to build crypto mining sites with a total capacity of 200 megawatt in the coming two years, the company said in the statement. When the 200MW facilities are put to full operation, they are expected to be able to host at least 50,000 S19 Antminers and accommodate about 5 exahashes per second of hash power.

• To put that into perspective, data from BTC.com shows that top three Bitcoin mining pools have a hashrate of 21.97 EH/s, 17.42 EH/s and 14.9 EH/s as of Monday. In theory, a miner would need close to 149.2 petahashes — or 0.149 exashash per second of hash power to mine an average of 1 BTC per day, according to a report by Decrypt.

• The9’s latest move follows its previous deal announced earlier this month with KazDigital Ltd., another Kazakh crypto mining company, to form a joint venture to build a mining site with a capacity of 100 megawatts.

• “The9 is actively developing the globalization of its cryptocurrency mining business. The first batch of hash power has been restored in Kazakhstan in early August this year and has been operating stably,” NBTC CEO Cai Zhifang said in the statement, adding that if all the company’s global partnerships progress smoothly, the company expects to restore 50% of its original hash power by the end of October this year.

• Also, NBTC said it had signed a crypto mining hosting agreement with BitRiver, a Russian crypto mining company. In June, The9 announced that it was acquiring Montcrypto Ltd., a Canadian clean energy crypto mining company.

• As China continues cracking down on crypto mining, many miners have fled China for other places that appear to be more regulations-friendly and offer inexpensive power. Some of the top destinations for displaced Chinese miners have included North America, Kazakhstan and Northern Europe.