Bitcoin Infrastructure and American Energy Leadership

Jihan Wu, Chairman & CEO of Bitdeer Technologies Group, joined Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) and moderator Perianne Boring, Founder and Chair of The Digital Chamber, to discuss “Bitcoin Infrastructure and American Energy Leadership” at the recent DC Blockchain Summit 2026. The discussion touched on the role mining data centers plays in grid resilience, power markets, and national energy security, as well as its intersection with AI compute.

Bitcoin Mining as a National Security Asset

Perianne Boring: Where do you see the Bitcoin mining industry going, and how does it fit into the broader conversation around national security?

Jihan Wu: Bitdeer owns 3 GW of power capacity worldwide, and two-thirds of that is in the U.S. We want to expand further in the U.S.

Bitcoin mining today consumes roughly 20 GW of power globally. Even though Bitcoin production halves every four years, I think the industry’s total power demand will still grow as Bitcoin’s price rises over time.

The U.S. should want to attract that new demand. Investors need confidence that long-term demand will be there, before building new power generation infrastructure. Demand from industries like Bitcoin mining, hyperscalers, and other emerging sectors gives them that confidence.

I think Bitcoin mining could add another 40 GW of demand over the next eight years. That is very significant and could support more aggressive investment in power generation.

Bitcoin mining is also a highly flexible and interruptible load. If there is peak demand elsewhere on the grid or a disruption on the generation side, a mining farm can reduce power usage with only one to three minutes’ notice. Bitdeer has participated in this kind of curtailment consistently over the past few years.

Turning Stranded Energy into Scalable Infrastructure

Perianne Boring: Beyond flexible load, what developments in Bitcoin mining do you find most promising from an energy security and sustainability standpoint?

Jihan Wu: Bitcoin mining is very flexible. Even operations with just 2 MW to 4 MW can be economical, and they can run in places where energy would otherwise go unused. That means energy that used to be uneconomic or stranded can now be monetized through Bitcoin mining.

Flare gas is a good example. That gas is usually wasted, but with Bitcoin mining, we can install gas-powered generators on-site and use that energy productively. Some companies that started this way have already grown into operators of very large data centers, because this business develops labor, engineering talent, and capital over time.

The same is true for wind and solar. Their output is not always stable, and sometimes they push grid prices very low, which hurts generators. Bitcoin mining can ramp power use up and down very easily and adjust based on power prices.

That makes mining well-suited to absorb the volatility of renewable generation. Combining solar farms with Bitcoin mining has already become quite common.

Bitcoin Mining and AI Data Centers

Perianne Boring: How do you see the intersection of Bitcoin mining and AI developing?

Jihan Wu: Many Bitcoin miners are converting mining farms into AI data centers. If you look at revenue or profit per MW, AI data centers are currently more attractive than Bitcoin mining.

But Bitdeer is staying in Bitcoin mining. We are not giving it up. We still want to expand our Bitcoin mining operations in the U.S. First, we believe in Bitcoin mining. Second, I think it is very important for the U.S. to maintain a significant share of global Bitcoin hash rate, especially now that Bitcoin is becoming a strategic asset for both the federal government and state governments.

If the U.S. owns a large amount of Bitcoin but does not control a meaningful share of hash rate within trusted territory, that is bad for the security and integrity of the asset.

Bitcoin is also a commodity business, and commodities move in cycles. The market has been weak, miners have not been very profitable, and that is one reason AI has become so attractive. But like any commodity industry, the right approach is not to abandon it during a downturn. You keep investing and stay positioned, because when the cycle turns, the companies that stay committed benefit the most.

It is similar to the memory industry. Memory used to be treated like a commodity business that no one wanted, but companies like Micron and Hynix are now performing very well. Bitcoin mining can be similar.

So we should not give it up entirely. If we are going to build AI data centers, we should do that by developing new power lines, new grid connections, or new behind-the-meter generation.