Tether, Canaan and ACME build modular bitcoin miners

Tether, Canaan and ACME Swisstech announced Tuesday they are developing modular bitcoin mining systems built around application-specific hash-board modules that separate compute from power and housing.

Tether plans to integrate the modules into its control architecture, thermal management systems and software stack, and pair the design with immersion cooling.

The design replaces sealed, fully assembled miners with a modular approach in which hash boards operate as standalone compute units. Separating compute from power delivery and enclosures allows each element to be optimized independently for cooling, maintenance and upgrades.

The partners wrote that combining modular hash boards with immersion cooling aims to lower power overhead, improve energy efficiency per hash and cut downtime through easier servicing and hot-swapping of components.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether's CEO, said in the announcement: “Most mining infrastructure is still built as sealed, fixed units, which makes it expensive to scale and inefficient to run.” He added that Tether is revisiting that concept with modular compute that can be tuned, upgraded and cooled independently.

Canaan called the partnership a response to rising demand for modular, high-performance hardware that can be integrated into custom industrial deployments. ACME Swisstech described the project as a shift away from retail plug-and-play rigs and focused on larger-scale industrial systems.

The partners did not disclose production timelines or pricing. Tether will integrate the hash-board modules into its software and thermal-management layers rather than deploying complete third-party rigs off the shelf.

The announcement follows other steps by Tether to expand in bitcoin infrastructure. The company disclosed an 8.2% stake in Antalpha last week, open-sourced a Bitcoin Mining OS earlier this year and completed corporate transactions linked to Peak Mining in December.

Tether executives have tied mining expansion to the company's bitcoin holdings. Ardoino has said the firm plans to scale mining operations and target becoming the world’s largest miner by the end of 2025 as a way to hedge and secure its BTC exposure.

The partners described the modular approach as giving operators more control over cooling and power distribution while enabling computing-capacity upgrades without replacing entire rigs.