Hawkins County passes second crypto mining ban in unanimous 12-0 vote
The Hawkins County Commission in Tennessee voted 12-0 to ban the establishment, construction, and operation of crypto mining facilities and data centers in unincorporated areas. The vote is the county's second such ban, following a September 2025 measure targeting ExoticRidge. A proposed settlement allowing the company to operate with noise restrictions remains unresolved.
Jul 30th, 2026·Hawkins County Commission
Ionic Digital surges 26% in Nasdaq direct listing debut
Ionic Digital completed its Nasdaq direct listing, opening at $50 and closing at $62.90 (+26%), giving it a market cap of ~$2.8B on ~44.9M shares. Formed in 2024 from Celsius Mining's bankruptcy assets, the company has since expanded into AI and HPC infrastructure. Renaissance Capital called it the largest US direct listing since 2021 at its $53 reference price.
Jul 29th, 2026·Ionic Digital
Core Scientific signs 529MW, $14B AI infrastructure deal with AMD
Core Scientific announced a 15-year infrastructure partnership with AMD covering 529MW of US AI capacity, with base contracted revenue exceeding $14B. Capacity is expected to support AMD customer deployments from 2027. AMD holds options to reserve an additional 1,925MW by Dec. 2028, potentially expanding the partnership to ~2.5GW. The companies will co-deploy AMD Instinct GPUs, EPYC processors, and ROCm software.
Jul 28th, 2026·Core Scientific
Kazakhstan approves strategic mining rules requiring state reserve contributions
Kazakhstan approved Government Resolution No. 638 on July 18, establishing a strategic digital mining framework. Qualifying miners receive electricity quotas at regulated tariffs in exchange for transferring a portion of mined crypto assets to Astana Hub, a state-backed technology cluster. Kazakhstan ranked fifth globally for Bitcoin mining in the 2025 Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report.
Jul 23rd, 2026·Government of Kazakhstan
Foundry polls mining clients on BIP-110 support ahead of August deadline
Foundry USA, the largest Bitcoin mining pool at ~23.8% of global hashrate, is polling its mining clients on whether to signal support for BIP-110, a soft fork proposal to limit data storage in Bitcoin transactions and curb non-monetary uses such as Ordinals. Voting closes at block 961,632 in early August. Adam Back and Michael Saylor have both publicly opposed the proposal.
Jul 22nd, 2026·Foundry