CoinDesk Podcast Network The Blockspace Pod: Inside Tether’s 50 EH/s Mining Empire w/ Elektron's Rapha Zagury
Feb 27, 2026
Rapha (Rafa) Zagury, CEO of Elektron and manager of Tether’s 50 EH/s bitcoin mining portfolio, is a fintech-turned-Bitcoin infrastructure entrepreneur. He discusses Elektron’s global 200k-ASIC footprint across 32 sites. Topics include how Tether consolidated mining assets, the coming AI vs Bitcoin mining site bifurcation, energy and host strategies, and why hashrate growth matters.
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Why Tether Centralized 50 EHs With Elektron
- Tether consolidated mining into Elektron to run a 50 EH/s portfolio with institutional discipline.
- Elektron scaled quickly via an asset-light model, rigorous financial models, and transparency to Tether including real-time site and wallet access.
Always Model ASIC Economics Before Deploying
- Run the numbers before investing in mining and write investment memos for each opportunity.
- Elektron models ASIC evolution and economics extensively and plans to open-source those models for transparency and repeatability.
Mining Adds Strategic Optionality To A Bitcoin Treasury
- Mining gives Tether optionality beyond holding BTC by producing yield and operational levers like utility relationships.
- Tether treats mining as a hard-asset, strategic allocation alongside gold, real estate, and treasury holdings.