THE MINING POD: MARA’s CTO Shakeup, BlackRock’s $40B AI Deal, Bitdeer’s $2B AI Plans, Ionic Digital’s Microsoft Deal
In a packed week for bitcoin mining news, MARA has dismissed its CTO, BlackRock cooks up a $40 billion data center firm acquisition, and Bitdeer unveils its $2 billion AI ambitions.
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:Welcome back to The Mining Pod! This week, Luxor CEO Nick Hansen joins us to talk multi-month hashprice lows (how low do we go?), MARA firing its CTO, Ionic Digital’s Microsoft-linked AI deal, Bitdeer’s gangbusters September and $2B AI plans, and BlackRock taking the lead on a $40B data center company acquisition. Plus, the US government seizes $14.1B (potentially $16.5B total) in bitcoin from an international scam operation.
**Notes:**
• Hash price dropped below $50/PH/day at $47
• Difficulty adjustment down 2.5% after months of increases
• Bitcoin price fell from $125K to $108K post-tariff news
• Marathon quietly cans CTO
• Bitdeer mined 452 BTC in Sept, up 20.5% month-over-month
• Bitdeer projects $2B annual revenue from AI starting in 2026
• BlackRock leads $40B Aligned Data Centers acquisition
• US seized $14.1B+ Bitcoin from crime syndicate
• PJM needs 43GW battery storage by 2045
• Ionic Digital secured 240MW Microsoft lease, expandable to 1.2GW
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