Stratum V2 Pool DMND Launches, Tether Buys $BTDR, and Lancium Loses Patent Dispute

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Stratum V2 Pool DMND Launches, Announces Raise

Bitcoin mining startup DMND has opened applications for miners to join its Stratum V2 pool as launch partners, offering a 0% fee for the first two months.

The company, backed by Bitcoin venture firm Trammell Venture Partners (TVP) in a Q4 2024 financing round, aims to decentralize mining by allowing miners to construct their own block templates, reducing centralization risks and improving payout transparency. The terms of the raise remain undisclosed.

The mining pool industry has certainly seen its fair share of centralization, with two major groups controlling upwards of 60% of Bitcoin’s hashrate: Foundry Digital and Antpool. Moreover, Antpool generates templates for multiple smaller pools, likely increasing the total hashrate under both entities.

Pools like DMND–and Ocean Mining in 2023–highlight a recent appetite for venture capital to enter the pool game. It’s not without risk, however. For example, MEGA Pool launched in early 2023, only to be washed out in the same year.

For DMND co-founder Alejandro de la Torre, it’s about addressing an existential problem with Bitcoin.

“The Bitcoin mining industry has a key problem which I've pinpointed over my 10 year career: mining pool centralization,” de la Torre said in a statement. “It is paramount that we make Stratum V2 a reality. SV2 will help decentralize Bitcoin mining by allowing miners to build their own blocks.”

DMND uses a process dubbed “SLICE” to ensure auditable transactions with no hidden fees. The pool also markets its end-to-end encryption scheme which claims to prevent hashrate hijacking.

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Tether Increases Stake in Bitdeer Technologies

What happened: Stablecoin giant Tether increased its holdings in Bitcoin miner Bitdeer (BTDR), per a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing reveals that Tether and its subsidiaries now collectively own 31,891,689 Class A ordinary shares in Bitdeer, or 21.4% of the company’s outstanding shares.

Why it matters: Crypto’s money printer is backing Bitdeer’s expansion, helping to capitalize Jihan Wu’s newest mining project. With the capital backing, Bitdeer can help realize its goal of brining 2.4 GW of energy into production plus developer and commercial its Bitmain competing ASIC fleet, the SEAL Miner.

BTDR is down over 50% year to date, trading at $10.48 as of publishing time.

Foreman, Cholla Energy score win in dispute with Lancium

What happened: Energy and data center firm Lancium suffered a legal setback after conceding an inter partes review challenge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

U.S. Patent No. 11,016,456 B2–which described a “method and system for dynamic power delivery to a flexible datacenter using unutilized energy sources–was jointly challenged by Bitcoin mining firms Cholla Energy and OBM, also known as Foreman–in May 2024. 

After the USPTO review, Lancium chose to file a motion for adverse judgment on March 13, effectively nullifying all 26 challenged claims. The USPTO is still reviewing one further patent challenge by Cholla Energy and OBM, US Patent 10,608,433, relating to a similar technology.

Why it matters: OBM and Cholla’s patent challenge helps clear the way for other data center operators in Texas to use controllable load software, free from royalty payments or fear of future litigation from Lancium.

Read the full article here.