A look at the emergence of Kentucky as a small bitcoin mining powerhouse; an estimate says Kentucky produces more CO2 from crypto mining than any other US state
a few months later, he incorporated his own mining business. I took a road trip through Kentucky, where the bitcoin industry is making a big push: https://longreads.trust.org/ ... Chris Polansky / @chriskpolansky : Extremely interesting story/thread, especially in light of the new major crypto-mining operation announced for NE Oklahoma last week: https://twitter.com/... Jim Ridolfo / @ridolfoj : The more I think about this story today the more ragey I get. This is the majority whip in the Kentucky Senate using his legislative power to profit off an industry that provides nothing back to the state in revenue, stigmatizes the state re this story, & is a massive energy suck https://twitter.com/... Michael Zelenko / @mvzelenks : “We're trying to digitize coal.” Fascinating reporting here from @AASchapiro Coal to crypto: The gold rush bringing bitcoin miners to Kentucky https://longreads.trust.org/ ... @marietjeschaake : Fascinating deep dive into the trade-offs between profit, public and environment, around bitcoin mining in the poor parts of Kentucky ↘️ https://twitter.com/... Mere Smith / @evilgalprods : And, as mentioned downthread, in Kentucky, where do you think the energy for all that electricity comes from? Coal. https://twitter.com/... Sarah Emerson / @sarahnemerson : “Core Scientific, a bitcoin mining giant that announced plans to invest over $44 million in western Kentucky in 2018, predicted in its application for government financial incentives that it would create a total of 35 jobs.” https://longreads.trust.org/ ... Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : By some estimates, the bitcoin mining gold-rush in Kentucky produces as much CO2 as adding 650,000 new cars on the road. I spent a week driving around, visiting bitcoin mines, & talking to locals about it: https://longreads.trust.org/ ... Brady Quirk-Garvan / @bradyqg : Tax breaks for Bitcoin?! Of all the stupid ways we waste tax payer dollars on subsidies for profitable businesses this is a quick contender for the top 3 list. https://twitter.com/... Jo Maugham / @jolyonmaugham : The State of Kentucky has created tax incentives to burn coal to make Bitcoin. https://longreads.trust.org/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Kentucky built its mining boom deliberately: state tax incentives drew operators such as Core Scientific, which announced plans in 2018 to invest over $44 million in western Kentucky with a projection of about 35 jobs. The payoff is now measurable — an estimate puts Kentucky's crypto-mining CO2 above every other US state, equivalent to roughly 650,000 additional cars.
The story lands amid a global reshuffle of where mining happens: after internet disruptions knocked out an estimated 15% of the world's miners, miners who had scrambled into Kazakhstan are now leaving as the government throttles power supply. Meanwhile New York is weighing a three-year moratorium after a fossil-fuel plant was restarted there to mine crypto — making Kentucky's welcome look both strategic and contested, especially with the state Senate majority whip accused of using his legislative position to profit from the industry.
First-order effects
- Kentucky's incentive regime is doing its job — new operations keep arriving — but the majority-whip conflict allegation hands critics a concrete target for scrutinizing how those subsidies were passed.
- The state now carries the largest crypto-mining carbon footprint in the country, putting its utilities and grid planners on the hook for demand that arrived through policy choices rather than market pull alone.
Second-order effects
- Miners exiting Kazakhstan need a jurisdiction with cheap power and friendly politics, so Kentucky-style subsidy packages become the competitive template other state legislatures must match or refuse.
- If New York passes its proposed three-year moratorium, displaced miners have an obvious next stop in permissive states like Kentucky — concentrating emissions where regulation is loosest.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward mining migrating to whichever government offers the cheapest power and warmest reception, externalizing its carbon cost onto host states until state-level rules like New York's moratorium become the main brake.
- Subsidy-driven recruitment with thin job returns — Core Scientific's roughly 35 projected jobs against a top-of-country emissions rank — sets up a legitimacy fight over whether mining deserves public money at all.
The trend: Bitcoin mining is consolidating into US states that trade cheap power and tax incentives for industrial-scale emissions, with state legislatures becoming the decisive regulator of where the industry lands.