Bitcoin mining with such hardware will be one of the most promising applications of space computing, he said. ASIC devices are about 30 times cheaper than GPUs, forklog.com reported.
“A kilowatt of a B200 chip can cost $30,000, whereas an ASIC only costs about $1,000,” Johnston explained.
He sees orbital mining as “the business of the future” – primarily because of the economics compared to mining on Earth. Space opens up access to endless and free solar energy.
“Bitcoin mining consumes about 20 GW of energy all the time. Doing it on Earth makes no sense – sooner or later it all has to go into orbit,” emphasized Starcloud’s CEO.
Specializing in the creation of space data centers, the project appeared in 2024. In November 2025, it sent the Starcloud-1 satellite with Nvidia H100 into orbit for the first time.
In early February 2026, the company filed an application with the FCC to deploy 88,000 solar-powered satellites for orbital data centers. It is part of this equipment that will be used for cryptocurrency mining.
However, the realization of the plans directly depends on SpaceX and the launch of the Starship heavy-lift launch vehicle, which is expected in March.
Another startup dealing with the topic of bitcoin mining in space is Intercosmic Energy.
According to the website, the project’s mission is to launch satellites that will take on the functions of a decentralized issuing center for the first cryptocurrency. At the time of writing, Intercosmic Energy has not yet realized any plans.
