Orbital Crypto Mining
An Nvidia-backed startup plans to establish a Bitcoin mining operation in space before the year is out. Starcloud will fire up its cryptocurrency mining ASICs after its second spacecraft reaches orbit later this year, according to CEO Philip Johnston.
₿𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: The first company to mine bitcoin in space will be Starcloud, says CEO Philip Johnston“We’ll have some bitcoin mining ASICs on the second spacecraft launching later this year” pic.twitter.com/6LjTj1j0fISeptember 21, 2026
Moving Data Centers to Space
Starcloud was founded in 2024 with the goal of moving data centers to space. The firm highlights that space-based data centers can leverage continuous solar energy and radiative cooling to scale up to gigawatts while avoiding terrestrial permitting constraints. While the mission primarily focuses on training AI in space, the abundant solar energy supply also supports cryptomining.
When the Starcloud-2 spacecraft reaches orbit, it will be tasked with running crypto operations. Johnston confirmed that the second spacecraft launching later this year will carry Bitcoin mining ASICs.
The Starcloud-2 Mission
Starcloud-2 is the second of four planned satellite launches and serves as the company's first commercial mission, featuring a GPU cluster alongside the mining hardware. Although the official project page did not initially mention Bitcoin mining or ASICs, Johnston highlighted the application as potentially one of the most compelling use cases for space compute.
Cost Comparison
Johnston noted that ASICs are significantly cheaper than GPUs, costing about 30 times less per kilowatt. As an example, he contrasted a 1kW Nvidia B200 chip priced at $30,000 against a 1kW ASIC priced at $1,000.
Challenges of Space Compute
Despite the advantage of near-uninterrupted solar power, space-based computing faces notable hurdles. Satellites are difficult to service in orbit, and traditional convection cooling is ineffective in a vacuum, meaning operational challenges will be evaluated during pioneering deployments like Starcloud-2.
