El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office has announced that its geothermal system, located at a volcano, has successfully mined nearly 474 BTC over the past three years. This makes El Salvador the first country to mine Bitcoin using a volcano-powered plant. According to a recent report by Reuters, the total value of the mined Bitcoin amounts to around $30 million.
As of now, El Salvador holds a total of 5,750 BTC, which is worth approximately $373 million. President Nayib Bukele, a strong advocate for cryptocurrency, has utilized the energy generated by the Tecapa volcano to install 300 processors for mining BTC.
The report reveals that out of the 102 megawatts produced by the power plant, 1.5 megawatts are dedicated to mining Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
In December, El Salvador made headlines with the approval of its “Volcano Bonds,” which are the world’s first-ever Bitcoin bonds. These bonds were initially set to launch in early 2022 but were delayed due to a crash in BTC’s price at the time.
Despite the rising value of Bitcoin, President Bukele declared that El Salvador has no intentions of selling its BTC holdings.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $64,929, experiencing a 5.74% increase in the past 24 hours.
