The9 Ltd., a Chinese gaming company that only a few months ago pivoted to crypto mining, has signed a term sheet through a company unit with an enterprise in Kazakhstan to set up a joint venture. The move is a bid to ramp up crypto mining operations in the Central Asian nation.
Fast facts
- Nasdaq-listed The9 signed the term sheet through wholly-owned subsidiary NBTC Ltd. with crypto mining company KazDigital Ltd. to form a joint venture to build a mining site with a capacity of 100 megawatts, according to a statement.
- The9 will invest cash or mining machines, while KazDigital is set to invest assets related to construction and infrastructure at the mining site, the statement said.
- The new facility, expected to reach full capacity in the first quarter of next year, will be used to deploy The9’s mining machines and potentially other third-party companies’ machines. The Chinese company plans to ship 1,000 machines to Kazakhstan for trial operations.
- “In the near future, we will continue to actively seek … low-cost electricity and sustainable energy mining facilities in different regions of the world to accelerate the deployment of large-scale cryptocurrency mining machines for ourselves and other partners by both self-construction of mining facilities and hosting cooperation with mining facilities companies,” NBTC Chief Executive Zhifang Cai said in the statement.
- The company’s move in Kazakhstan follows earlier deals in Russia and Canada. Last month, 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.