A $5.3 billion hedge fund has begun to expand its Bitcoin mining investment. Is mining so attractive?

US bitcoin mining farm Core Scientific announced yesterday that hedge fund and investment management firm Horizon Kinetics has strengthened its partnership with the US blockchain hosting provider.

Horizon Kinetics, which manages about $5.3 billion in assets, did not disclose the size of the investment, as it upgraded the hardware for its cryptocurrency mining service hosted by Core Scientific to Bitmain Antminer S19 and S19 Pro miners.

Horizon Kinetics has tripled the number of bitcoin mining machines it is working with Core Scientific on over the past year, Core Scientific said in its press release.

Taras Kulyk, vice president of blockchain development at Core Scientific, said in an interview that more financial institutions will move blockchain mining operations from overseas to North America.

According to Reuters, Barry Silbert, founder of New York-based Grayscale Investments, one of the largest cryptocurrency management funds, expressed similar views in February last year.

It is unclear whether the change is due to cheaper electricity, more efficient operations, or for compliance and auditing reasons.

“Over the past three years, we have performed due diligence on more than a dozen companies hosting cryptocurrency mining facilities in the United States and Canada,” said Hugh Ross, COO of Horizon Kinetics. “We have been working with Core Scientific for over a year now, and we have seen firsthand what working with a professionally managed organization can do to set your mining operation up for success. The sheer scale of their operations and dedication to the customer experience has placed them in the top tier of U.S.-based Bitcoin hosting companies.”

Core Scientific recently purchased 17,000 latest generation cryptocurrency mining machines from Bitmain. (Baijiahao)