Tether has announced it is migrating its global Bitcoin mining operations to Ocean, a decentralized mining pool created by core Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr. 

The announcement was made on April 15 by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.

According to Ardoino, this move is part of Tether’s ongoing strategy to strengthen Bitcoin’s decentralization and reduce the dominance of major centralized mining pools, such as Foundry USA, AntPool, and ViaBTC, which currently control a significant share of the global hashrate.

Tether significantly expanded its mining presence in late 2023, investing more than $500 million into mining infrastructure. Its operations now span several regions worldwide, including Latin America, with a corporate base recently established in El Salvador.

How the Integration with Ocean Will Work

Ocean operates using an open-source protocol called Datum, which enables miners to independently create block templates. This approach decentralizes the block production process and eliminates the need for centralized oversight.

Tether intends to implement this system across its entire mining infrastructure, including sites in rural regions of Africa, Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador.

Datum supports local block template generation and thousands of low-latency mining connections. Tether believes this enhances global competitiveness while promoting geographic and operational diversity within the Bitcoin network.

Ocean was launched in 2023 with backing from Block CEO Jack Dorsey. In May 2024, the project moved its headquarters to El Salvador — a country known for its embrace of Bitcoin and crypto innovation.

Currently, Ocean controls a relatively small portion of the network’s block production — between 0.2% and 1%, according to mempool.space. Over the past week, Ocean mined nine blocks, including two consecutive ones. In contrast, Foundry USA alone mined 331 blocks during the same period.

However, with Tether’s support, that gap may soon begin to narrow. Ocean’s 24-hour hashrate recently stood at 18.3 EH/s, compared to Foundry’s 298 EH/s — powered by heavyweight mining firms like Hut 8, Bitdeer, and Bitfarms.

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